A Star to Hold
by Lachenna
Summary: Life is about to be turned upside down for a certain white haired exorcist. How will he cope with the changes? Semi-AU. Mpreg. Female Allen. AllenxKanda.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: So, it's time for a new story! Woo! I started writing this well over a year ago, and it's finally close enough to finished that I can post it. It doesn't have an ending yet, but that's because I decided that what I wrote was too cool for this story and stole it to use for "A Second Neko". I've written thirteen chapters so far, so hopefully I'll get the ending and the epilogue written before I finish posting them. ;) Speaking of which, I'll be posting new chapters of this story once a week.

Warnings: 1) mpreg, obviously, but it's also fpreg because: 2) Allen will be female by the time this story is over. 3) The language in this story is a little more graphic than I normally write. If you're uncomfortable with descriptions of female anatomy, proceed with caution. 4) There are two lemons in this story and they're both Yullen.

The same semi-AU rules I always use apply here: Allen's 18, Neah is gone, and Cross and Lavi are alive.

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As much as I loved to tease Allen about his recent weight gain, it was starting to worry me. He'd been fitted for new pants just three weeks ago and he was already outgrowing them. For the most part, the weight was collecting in his belly; he had quite a bit of a gut. Of course, I was the only one who got to see it; he made sure to hide it under thick or baggy clothes around the rest of the Order. That's not to say that they didn't notice that he was getting heavier, it was hard not to with how bulky the sweaters made him look, but the weight gain was chalked up to his metabolism finally slowing down.

It wasn't hard to figure out that Allen was bothered by the weight gain. He increased his training, but that left him too exhausted for our night time activities, which frustrated us both. And he cut down on his food intake as much as he could stand, but then he complained constantly about being hungry. I don't know how I found the patience to put up with him. But the worst part was that despite all his work, he continued to gain weight.

I tried to get him to go talk to Komui about it, but he wouldn't go. He said he'd talked to the Supervisor two months earlier, when he'd first noticed the weight gain, and that the Chinese man had had nothing helpful to say. I argued that something might have changed, but all that did was start a fight. He stormed out before we got to the sex.

.x.x.

That fight last night really put me in a bad mood. It didn't help that I was starving at breakfast. Forcing myself to stick to my usual sized order was hard. I felt like I could easily eat twice that much.

I finished off the last dish quickly, but then I sat at the table, waging an internal war with myself. My stomach wanted more food, but the heaviness of my body was telling me that I had already eaten way too much. After weeks of this struggle, my willpower was fading. I was almost ready to give up and finally fill my aching stomach. But my pants had barely buttoned that morning and the waistband was digging uncomfortably into my skin. So until I was ready to accept being fat, I would continue having to fight with myself.

To be fair though, with the exception of my growing gut, I was still far from being overweight. I was so skinny to begin with that the weight I'd gained had simply bumped me up to a size that would be considered normal for my height. So I wasn't fat, I just felt that way. The teasing from my friends definitely didn't help with that feeling.

While I was sitting there, alone at my table, something inside me moved. A literal thing inside of my belly moved. It started out as a couple little flutters, which I had been feeling for the past few days and attributing to stress, but soon it became obvious that something was pressing against my skin from the inside. To say that it freaked me out was an understatement. I was horrified to my core. There was something inside my body and it was alive.

Forcing myself to remain outwardly calm, I eased my overweight body off the bench and walked down to Komui's office. I tried to explain what had happened rationally, but I was so frantic that the words came out completely jumbled. He at least understood that I was upset about something that was happening to my body, because we moved from his office down to a private room in the infirmary.

He had me sit on the examination table, and he pulled a chair over and sat facing me. "Now, what seems to be the problem?"

I tried to explain, but I couldn't figure out how to say it and kept tripping over my words. Deciding it would be quicker to show him, I took off the oversized sweater I was wearing.

.x.x.

Komui couldn't help gaping at the sight of Allen's exposed belly. It protruded a good three or four inches from the rest of the boy's body. Not wanting to stare, he tore his eyes away from the mound of flesh. In doing so, he noticed that that wasn't the only area where the white haired exorcist had gained weight. Allen's pants were clearly tight around his hips, and the teen's chest looked puffy and swollen; it could almost be said that he had breasts.

Allen was staring at his lap, still struggling to find words. The thing inside him had started moving again and the feeling was making him even more hysterical.

Komui placed a hand on the boy's shoulder. He needed to calm him down before he had a panic attack. But instead of calming Allen, it had the opposite effect. The young man finally let go of the tears he'd been holding in. He grabbed the Supervisor's wrist and moved the man's hand down to his belly.

The skin didn't squish under his touch like Komui expected. Instead, it was firm, like it was stretched taut. Then he felt what Allen was trying to show him.

It was unmistakably the kick of a baby. Komui had been a teenager when his mother was pregnant with Lenalee, and that feeling wasn't something he would ever forget. Somehow, Allen had gotten pregnant.

The Supervisor looked over the young man with a fresh eye. There was no doubt about it. Allen wasn't just pregnant, he was pretty far along too; somewhere in the fifth or sixth month at Komui's best guess.

But best guesses wouldn't be good enough to calm the hysteric exorcist. And telling a man he had something that only affected women wasn't something Komui could do lightly. Especially when he didn't know _why_ it was happening.

The Chinese man sighed and pulled his hand away. He placed it back on Allen's shoulder. "Allen... Allen. Breathe."

It took several minutes, but eventually the baby stopped kicking and Allen's sobs dissolved to silent tears and the occasional hiccup.

"Allen. I know what's going on." Komui almost smiled at the hope that filled the young exorcist's eyes. "But I need to do some tests to be sure about it first."

Allen had relaxed at hearing that Komui knew what was wrong with him, and the tone he'd used had calmed him out of thinking that it was some life-threatening disease, but the thought of tests made him nervous. "What kind of tests?"

"Just a basic work up. Nothing too out there." It was a lie, but it was to keep Allen calm. Komui was planning on doing every test he could think of on the young man. If Allen truly was pregnant, then Komui had to figure out how and why it had happened.

The tests started out slow: height and weight measurements, questions about the things Allen had been eating, drawing blood. But even those were too stressful for Allen and he passed out.

Komui had no qualms about continuing his exam while Allen was unconscious. In truth, it made things easier. That way he could do the ultrasound and the full body scan without having to explain to Allen what he was seeing.

He finished the tests and got the results. Those results were then meticulously compared to every single one of Allen's past medical records. He now knew how this impossible thing was happening. All that was left was to wait for Allen to wake up so that he could ask him a few final questions.

.x.x.

I groaned as I regained consciousness. The light in the room was too bright, and my body felt heavier than normal. Komui handed me a glass of water and that helped a lot. But the serious look on the Supervisor's face put me on edge. "What did you find out? What's inside me?"

"I'll get to that, Allen." Komui sighed. "But first I need to ask you some questions, and I need you to be completely honest, no matter how embarrassing the answers might be."

I nodded slowly, beyond nervous about what he would ask. "Ok..."

"Were you sick about four months ago?"

I frowned, four months was so long ago for trying to recall something like that. "What do you mean by 'sick'?"

"Nausea, vomiting, aversion to certain foods."

I sighed, remembering the daily early morning trips to the bathroom to throw up. "Yes."

"And how long did it last?"

"A couple months, I think. It was a while ago though, so I can't be sure."

Komui nodded and jotted something down on his stack of files. "And are you sexually active?"

"What?! No!" My eyes went wide with horror and feigned innocence.

"That's not the truth, Allen." Komui wasn't fazed by my lie. "I know from my tests that you aren't a virgin. So can we try this again?"

I glowered at him. "What does _that_ have to do with what's wrong with me?"

"Everything." Komui smiled gently. "If it makes it easier, all I really need to know is if it was consensual."

"What does that mean?" I frowned, trying to figure it out for myself.

"Did the sex happen with your permission or were you raped?"

My frown deepened. I did not want to talk about this. Telling the Supervisor that I wasn't raped was going to lead to me having to admit that I was gay, and that was never going to happen.

Komui didn't seem surprised that I didn't want to talk. "Look, I know it was with another man and that it's been going on for a while."

It was obvious that he had more to say, but I needed to stop him there. "How? How can you possibly know that?"

Komui briefly struggled to keep a straight face. He cleared his throat. "An examination of your rectum revealed scarring and other signs of repeated sodomy. Add in the traces of semen, and those kinds of marks could only have come from sexual contact, meaning that they were caused by a man's penis."

It took a moment to absorb everything he had said. And once I had, I blushed bright red. "Oh."

Komui smiled and placed a hand on my knee. "I know homosexuality is taboo, but I don't care about any of that. I just want to know if I need to worry about your wellbeing, that's all."

"I wasn't raped." The words were quiet. I didn't want to say them. But Komui was clearly not going to drop the subject until he got an answer. And if he already knew I was gay then it didn't matter anyway.

"That's good to hear. Now, are you still with the same man you were with five months ago? Or have you moved on?" Komui was once again writing something down.

"We're still together..." I was going to lose it if Komui's next question was 'who?'

But he just nodded and wrote some more. Though, given what his next question was, I would have preferred to continue talking about my sexuality. "Now, on a different subject, have your nipples been hurting?"

"What?!"

Komui didn't say a word; he just patiently waited for me to answer the question. I swallowed. "I- Well, I- I wouldn't say that they hurt... more like they're a little sore... They ache sometimes, but they only really hurt if they get bumped. ... ...Does this have something to do with what's happening to me? I assumed that they were just sore from the fat in my chest."

I was given a strange look. "The weight you've gained in your chest isn't fat, it's breast tissue."

"Huh?"

"Never mind. We'll circle back to that." I glared at him, but he was looking down at his papers. He mumbled a few things to himself that I couldn't make out, and then he sighed. "Well, for starters, you're about fifteen pounds underweight."

"'Underweight'?!" I was completely thrown by that statement. "How can I be _under_ weight?! I've done nothing but _gain_ weight over the past couple months!"

"But not as much as you should have. You really should be eating more..." Komui gave me a look. "You've been restricting your diet, haven't you?"

"Of course I have! In case you haven't noticed: I'm fat!" I don't know where the anger came from, it was just there. "What the hell does any of this have to do with the _thing_ that's inside me?! The way you're talking, it sounds like you want that thing to be there!"

Komui smiled gently at me and his words sent a chill down my spine, instantly killing my anger. "It's not a 'thing', Allen, it's a baby."

"What do you mean by 'baby'?" My breath hitched in my throat. I was scared of the answer. How could there be a baby inside of me?

"It means exactly what it sounds like it means. You're twenty two weeks pregnant."


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Thanks for reviewing/following/favoriting! I'm glad you guys are liking this so far!

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 _"It means exactly what it sounds like it means. You're twenty two weeks pregnant."_

"'Pregnant'?! How on earth can _I_ be pregnant?! I'm not a woman!" I could feel my earlier hysterics coming back.

"Internally, you are." Komui's voice was calm and serious.

"What does _that_ mean?!" My voice was louder than it needed to be, but Komui didn't even blink.

"It means that you have all the same internal organs as a woman." When I just stared blankly at him, he explained further. "You have a uterus, ovaries, a vagina, all of it."

"I do _not_ have a vagina! I'd think I'd know if I had one of those!"

The outburst made Komui smile. He handed me a page from his stack. It looked like gibberish to me, even the diagram meant nothing, but I knew it was supposed to be proof of what he was telling me. "It's not open yet, but it's there."

I shoved the page back at him and collapsed backwards onto the table. I couldn't stop the tears from falling. "How?"

Komui laughed. "Well, you're pregnant because you had sex with a man. I'd think that would be pretty obvious." His mirth suddenly vanished and he sighed heavily. "But if you're asking how it's possible... While you were unconscious, I went through your medical records. It happened when you lost your Innocence. While you were working to reconnect with it, it was restructuring your insides. We missed it at the time because we were focused on your heart and arm."

I didn't know how to react to that. "...My Innocence did this to me?"

Komui nodded, but otherwise ignored my question. "Allen. How long have you known that you're gay?"

I glared at him, but that just made him laugh. "Like I said earlier, I don't care. Actually, I prefer it that way. I don't have to worry about you touching my sister. So...?"

"... ... ...Since before I came to the Order..."

Komui briefly looked shocked, but then he nodded. "Anyway, your Innocence probably gave you those female organs _because_ you're gay. And given that you conceived less than a month after your eighteenth birthday, it's probably safe to say that your Innocence was preventing you from getting pregnant while you were a minor. If-"

I cut him off when I whimpered. The thing inside me was moving again. Komui smiled as he took my hand and placed it on my belly. He held it there when I tried to pull it away. I whimpered more; now I could feel it through my palm instead of just from the inside. "Allen, that's your baby. Your daughter."

He continued to babble, but I wasn't listening. I didn't even register that he'd said the baby was a girl. I was too busy fighting back the hysteria. I was given no choice but to face the fact that the mysterious thing inside me was actually a baby; a child I had somehow conceived in the uterus I had apparently had for years. But in the middle of my torment, a thought struck me. "Can't you just get rid of it?"

Komui's face fell. It was obvious from his expression that the question made him sad. "...Allen... ...The short answer is no. You're too far along. At twenty two weeks, we can't abort the baby without doing serious harm to you."

I don't know what expression was on my face, but it made Komui smile. "If you really don't want the baby, we can arrange for an adoption. But you need to calm down and put some serious thought into that before you decide to go through with it."

I nodded slowly. He finally released my hand and handed me my sweater. "Before you decide on anything though, there are a few things you need to do."

"Ok..." The word was muffled as I pulled the thick fabric over my head.

"First, you need to go to the cafeteria and get a decent meal. Don't stop when you think you've eaten enough: eat until you're full. Being underweight is only going to make the rest of your pregnancy more difficult. Understand?"

He stared sternly at me until I nodded. "I understand."

"Once you've done that, you need to go find the baby's father and tell him what's going on."

My eyes went wide with terror. "What?! No! I can't do that!"

Komui sighed. "Allen. It's his baby. He deserves to know that it exists."

"But he's never going to believe me!"

"Then bring him to me, and I'll prove it to him." He chuckled briefly. "Actually, even if he does believe you, you should still bring him to me. That way I can do an ultrasound for the both of you, and you'll get to see your daughter."

I frowned at that, but he ignored my reaction. "You're free to go now, Allen. Remember, go eat before you do anything else, ok?"

Easing myself off the exam table, I made my way to the door. Komui called to me before I reached it. "Allen? There's no reason for you to be embarrassed by your body."

I scowled at him, freezing as I adjusted how my sweater hung over my belly. He smiled gently at me. "You're not fat, you're pregnant."

The words only made me frown more. I turned back around and stalked the rest of the way to the door, slamming it behind me.

Completely lost in thought, I wandered to the cafeteria. Not because it was where I was told to go, but because that's where my feet always took me when I was hungry.

The size of my order made Jerry blink, but he didn't comment on it. I sat at a table alone, but it didn't stay that way for long. Lenalee joined me and talked nonstop while I ate. I didn't hear a single word she said. My mind only had enough room to concentrate on two things: finally filling my stomach, and the news I had just gotten. I barely noticed she was there.

That is until she pulled the fork out of my hand. "Are you even listening to me, Allen?"

"No." I reached for my fork, but she pulled it away.

She rolled her eyes. "Of course not. You never listen when you're eating. I should have known better."

I glared at her, but she didn't care. Her initial annoyance had faded to concern. "I thought you were watching your weight, isn't this going a little overboard?"

I took advantage of her worry to take my fork back. I stared at her levelly for a moment, debating how to tell her I'd been ordered to give that up without telling her why. "For your information, I just had a checkup. I'm fifteen pounds _under_ weight."

I started to dig into my food again, but once again, the fork was pulled from my hand. If she were anyone else, she would be dying a slow, painful death right about now. I glared across the table. "Lena. Give it back."

She shook her head at me, the expression on her face said she thought I was lying. "Allen... What really happened? You were trying so hard to lose weight. Did you give up because it wasn't working? Or-"

"Lena. Your brother did the exam. Go talk to him if you don't believe me. Now give me my fork back and leave me alone." The words upset her, but I had too many other problems to care. Especially with the realization that if I couldn't tell _her_ the truth, then there was no way I'd be able to tell _him_.

She stormed off, taking the fork with her. It didn't particularly bother me though. I was hungry enough that I could make do with my other utensils.

.x.x.

Lavi, having just returned from a mission, was completely unaware of everything that had transpired that morning. He walked past the Supervisor's office, as he usually did on his way to his room, and what was about to happen would catch him completely off guard.

The door opened without a sound, and he was yanked into the office by a firm hand on his elbow. It was dark inside, the lights were off and the drapes were closed. The Bookman apprentice narrowed his eye as he looked around for the owner of the hand that had pulled him inside. "Komui? What's going on? Why is it so dark?"

"Tell me, Lavi. How long have you been sleeping with Allen?"

Lavi whirled around, trying to figure out where the voice was coming from. The Supervisor was suggesting something truly mind boggling. "What are you talking about, Komui? I'm not sleeping with _anyone_ here! And definitely not _Allen_!"

"Don't deny it. You've been having sexual intercourse with Allen."

"Have you completely lost it, Komui?! Something like that would be against the vows I took when I became Bookman's apprentice." Lavi was trying really hard to stay calm. Komui's last sentence had made him want to throw up. "And what on earth would make you think I was ...doing _that_... with _Allen_ of all people?!"

Komui sighed inwardly. The redhead was tougher than he thought. But really, who else could have gotten Allen pregnant? He'd have to try a different tactic. "Fine, so you're not _actively_ sleeping with him. But you two have done it, right?"

That nauseous feeling wasn't going to go away. Not while the Supervisor remained insane. "Komui. I have never touched, thought about touching, or wanted to touch Allen like that. He's a guy! And I don't find him even remotely attractive! Besides, he's sleeping with your sister!"

Komui frowned. "I know for a fact that he is _not_ sleeping with my precious Lenalee, so don't try to change the subject."

Lavi blinked a few times and peeled his hands off his mouth. "He's not? ... Then this wasn't an elaborate ploy to make me say that out loud?"

Silence was the only answer he got, so he kept talking. "I really don't understand why you're so concerned with Allen anyway, even if he was ... interested in men, wouldn't that be none of your business? I mean, don't you usually try to stay out of those kinds of things?"

"I said, don't change the subject. This is about you and Allen, not me. Now stop with the denial, and tell me: when was the last time you and Allen exchanged bodily fluids?"

Lavi gagged. That mental image was too much. And to make it worse, Komui was clearly serious. "For the last time, I have never done anything like that with Allen, ever."

The redhead found the doorknob and escaped before Komui could ask about that disturbing subject again. He wandered aimlessly through the halls, trying desperately to shake the mental image of having sex with Allen that the Supervisor had put in his head.

At that precise moment, Allen was just finishing putting away his dishes from lunch. The two ran right into each other outside the cafeteria. "Oh, Lavi! I'm so sorry!"

"Don't worry about it, buddy. I wasn't paying attention either." Lavi forced a smile. Seeing Allen almost immediately after what had just happened was definitely not what he needed. But on the other hand... "Hey, Allen? Do you have any idea why Komui thinks we slept together?"

Allen paled and adjusted his sweater. "He thinks you and I ...?"

"Apparently." Lavi shuddered. Then he eyed his chunky friend. "You didn't tell him that we did, did you?"

"Of course not! How could you say that?" Tears pricked at the corners of Allen's eyes.

Lavi frowned. It had become way too easy to make the white haired teen cry lately. "Relax Allen, I didn't mean anything by it. Honest."

Allen blushed as he wiped his tears on his sleeve. He forced a smile. "I know, I'm sorry. Ugh... I should've known that Komui would go off the deep end when he learned that I'm gay."

At that point, he was just glad that Komui hadn't told the other that he was pregnant; that would have been completely awful.

He started to walk away, but Lavi caught his arm. The redhead felt like his one good eye was going to fall out of his head. He hadn't thought, even for a single second, that the part about Allen being gay was true. "You're ...?"

Allen shrugged as he pulled his arm free. "That's not a problem is it?"

Lavi blinked. "No. Of course it's not. ...Wait! So Komui thinks that we ... because he knows that you're sleeping with a man, and he just assumed it was me?"

"Probably." Allen shrugged again.

A devious smile crossed Lavi's face. _So Allen_ _**is**_ _actually sleeping with someone_... "Who is it really? Is it a fellow exorcist? Or is it one of those scientists that you're so close to? It's not Johnny, is it?"

"Definitely not!" Allen hadn't been planning on answering the question, but that suggestion deserved a very emphatic denial.

"Then who is it?"

"None of your fucking business." Allen turned and walked away, leaving Lavi too stunned over the curse word to pursue him.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Thanks for the reviews!

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When Lavi finally left me alone, I reluctantly made my way down to the training room. It was the most likely place for Kanda to be.

And he was there; I caught sight of him training, shirtless, through the door. But I couldn't make myself go in. I was much too scared of the conversation we had to have. After two minutes of doing nothing but standing there, I lost my nerve completely and retreated to my bedroom.

I collapsed on my bed, initially on my stomach, but a jolt of discomfort reminded me not to do that and I rolled onto my back. I tried to latch onto a coherent thought, but my head felt so chaotic. My stomach was full for the first time in almost six weeks, and that felt wonderful. Even if the feeling of being full did not.

After that, my thoughts turned to Kanda. We were barely a couple; we messed around and had sex. Love had never been mentioned. But why would it have? Some days we barely even liked each other, and on others, it was hard to remember why I'd given myself to a bastard like him in the first place. As far as I knew, I was nothing but stress release to him.

Did _I_ love _him_? There was no doubt about that. He drove me completely crazy, yet I loved him with every fiber of my being. And to top it off, there was no denying that he was attractive.

But my thoughts were once again pulled to my current problem: the thing - no, the _baby_ \- was moving again. The tears began to fall once more. Why was this happening to me? I lay there, crying, feeling the alien sensations of a baby moving around inside my belly.

I was so distracted that I didn't hear the door open. I didn't know someone else was even in my room until Kanda was sitting on the bed beside me. "What's wrong, Moyashi?"

Narrowing my eyes at him, I wiped my tears away quickly. "What are you doing here, Bakanda?"

He snorted. "I saw you outside the training room earlier. You looked like you wanted to talk to me, but then you ran away. So I came to find you, and here you are: lying in bed, crying your eyes out. So I'll ask again, what's wrong?"

"Since when do you care?" That anger I'd felt earlier, the kind that came from nowhere when I wasn't really angry, came back. "I'm nothing special to you, just a toy for sexual release."

The comment earned me a slap across the face. It wasn't hard, just strong enough to get my attention. "Don't talk about yourself like that, Moyashi."

I blinked at him; my anger was gone, replaced with extreme confusion. He wasn't mad at what I'd implied about him, but what I'd said about myself? I didn't understand in the slightest.

He stared at me for a moment before he spoke. "I may not show it, or say it, but I do care. _Especially_ about you. It hurts me when you degrade yourself like that. You are so much more than 'a toy' to me. You're a companion, a true friend, my lover."

The words had been hesitant and he had looked down at the bed the whole time, but that was how I knew it was the truth. Kanda wasn't the type to talk about his feelings. And he apparently wasn't done. "I don't know what changed to make you think I'm so petty, but if you were just a fling, don't you think I'd have dumped your sorry ass back when you started getting fat?"

To emphasize the words, he ran his hand down my side and squeezed my ass. In my irritation, I voiced the first thing that popped into my head. "I'm not fat, I'm pregnant!"

Kanda's gaze snapped up from the blankets and our eyes locked. His cobalt blue depths were full of bewilderment. "What the fuck did you just say, Moyashi?"

I blinked at him, feeling my face turn bright red. But I couldn't look away. "Damn, that wasn't how I wanted to say it... I talked to Komui this morning, like you had told me to do last night. He did some tests, and, well, that's what he found. I've gained so much weight lately because your baby is growing inside me."

Kanda continued to stare at me. He opened his mouth a few times, but never said anything. After a few minutes though, he had collected himself. "How is that possible? I know every inch of your body, Moyashi. You're male."

I sighed, closing my eyes and finally breaking the tense stare. After a moment's debate, I pulled up my sweater and exposed my belly. I grabbed Kanda's hand from where it was resting against my hip, and placed it on my bared skin. It only took a moment of waiting before the baby kicked the spot where his hand was.

Kanda recoiled in shock. He stared at his hand like it had been electrocuted. "What the hell was that?"

I sighed, trying to hold back the tears from how uncomfortable the baby moving made me. "The baby. She started moving this morning."

Another sigh, this next part was harder to say. "But to answer your first question: according to Komui, when I lost my arm a couple years ago, my Innocence ... changed my insides so that I have ... female parts."

When Kanda finally spoke, his words almost made me laugh. "Do you really expect me to believe all this?"

"That's what I said to Komui when he told me to tell you." I sighed and fixed my sweater. "He said to bring you to him and he'd prove it to you."

I was immediately hauled off the bed and dragged to the door. "Then let's go."

.x.x.

After finishing some of the work he'd been forced into doing, Komui returned to his office. By his calculations, Allen and his lover should be there soon, and after all of Lavi's denials, he couldn't wait to catch the redhead red handed.

But as he rounded the corner towards his office, the first person he saw was Kanda. The samurai looked really pissed about something. It simultaneously scared and frustrated Komui, he didn't want to have to deal with Kanda's grievances in the middle of this whole pregnancy debacle.

As he stepped closer however, he noticed Allen on the other side of Kanda. The teen was leaning back against the wall and staring at the floor, his white hair spilling into his face. His expression seemed embarrassed.

At first, he wondered why they were both there, but it didn't take long for Komui to figure out what it all meant. And he was shocked. "Allen."

The boy looked up when he heard his name. He met Komui's gaze, and the Supervisor tilted his head towards Kanda. "Really?"

Allen dropped his gaze back towards the floor. "Yes."

"Really?"

"Yes, really." Allen sighed heavily. "Can we move on?"

Komui stared at the pair for another moment before he looked away. The Supervisor's mind was more than a little blown to learn that _Kanda_ was the one who had gotten Allen pregnant. "Right, of course. Let's head down to the infirmary."

The three were all lost in their own thoughts as they walked. Kanda was wondering what was really going on, because there was no way that _Allen_ was actually pregnant. Allen was trying to stay calm and praying Kanda would react well to whatever was about to happen. And Komui was processing what he'd just learned: Allen was sleeping with Kanda.

In a way it made sense, they balanced each other so well. And it certainly explained their fighting. If they were secretly having sex, they'd want to make sure that absolutely no one even suspected it. But the feeling of disbelief was still there: a part of Komui suspected that Kanda might have been there just so that Allen didn't have to reveal who he was sleeping with.

Back in the same private room as before, Allen climbed onto the examination table. A chair was pulled close, and Kanda sat in it. Unnerved by the silence, Komui quickly prepped the things he needed and wheeled a machine over towards the waiting pair. "This is an ultrasound machine; it'll let us see the baby while she's still inside Allen."

Neither of the young men said anything; Kanda's scowl deepened, and Allen continued to stare at the wall like he wished he were anywhere else. At Komui's prompting, Allen pulled up his sweater and exposed his belly. He winced at the feeling of gel being spread across his skin, but his eyes never moved away from that spot on the wall.

Komui frowned at the white haired exorcist's behavior, but chose to ignore it. He turned on the machine and began the exam. "That sound is the baby's heartbeat. And this," he traced an area on the screen with his finger, "is your baby."

Kanda's scowl was now directed at the screen, but there was confusion written all over the expression. Allen truly was carrying his child; the brat hadn't been messing with him.

Allen continued to stare at the wall. He refused to look at the screen; he didn't want to see the baby because he knew that the moment he did, he'd start to care about it; it was hard enough just tuning out the heartbeat. But when Komui started pointing out fingers and toes, and how it was possible to tell that the baby was female, curiosity got the better of him. Allen looked at the image of his daughter and it was love at first sight. "Is she healthy?"

"She is." Komui smiled at the question. It was a complete attitude change from the one that morning. "But that'll change quickly if you don't gain some weight. You being so thin isn't good for either of you."

Allen frowned. He didn't want to get any heavier, but if it was what that helpless little baby needed, then he truly had no choice.

"How exactly is it supposed to get out of the Moyashi?" Kanda continued to scowl at the screen in such a way that neither of the others could tell what he was thinking.

Komui frowned, trying to think of a tactful way to word the answer. He turned off the ultrasound machine and began putting it away. "As I told Allen earlier, he has a vagina. It's closed right now, but it will open sometime in the next few months. Once it does, he'll be able to give birth the same way a woman would."

Allen's face visibly grew several shades whiter at the thought of giving birth, but the reaction was ignored. Komui was more focused on what Kanda'Ss reaction would be. The samurai's scowl turned thoughtful. "That's why his hips have been getting wider, isn't it? And his chest? Is that...?"

Komui nodded. The personal nature of Kanda's questions, combined with Allen's lack of reaction to them, killed any doubt that Komui had as to whether or not the two were truly physically intimate. "Allen's hips are widening because his pelvis is changing to make the birth easier on him. And his chest is developing into breasts so that he'll be able to nurse the baby once she's here. So long as he can get himself up to a healthy weight, his pregnancy will be no different from a woman's."

The room fell silent. Kanda couldn't ask any of his remaining questions without giving away what he thought of the situation, and he wasn't going to do that with Komui in the room. Allen had completely lost his ability to speak. Hearing how much more female his body was going to become was freaking him out; the thought of breastfeeding was just as mortifying as the thought of childbirth.

Komui broke the silence with a sigh. "Since we're on the subject, I may as well tell you both this now. There's a high probability that Allen's body won't go back to being male after the birth. It's most likely going to stay in that hermaphroditic state."

"What exactly do you mean by that?" The question was barely audible. Allen was surprised he'd managed to say it at all. But he didn't know what Komui was saying, and he needed to find out.

The Supervisor surveyed the pale young man, and decided that in this instance, blunt was best, trying to be gentle would only cause a misunderstanding later on. "Once your vagina opens, it's not going to close back up. Your breasts probably aren't going to go away either. And not only will it be possible for you to get pregnant again, you'll most likely start having a menstrual cycle as well."

Allen's face had gone from white as a sheet to burning red. Kanda's scowl had returned, and he was growing frustrated; in the midst of this explicit conversation, centered around his lover's body, he was having issues with the English language. "I'm a little lost. What does the word 'hermaphroditic' mean?"

Komui was relieved to be asked a question that wasn't specifically about Allen's female body parts; he didn't know how much longer he could remain professional with the subject. "A hermaphrodite is someone, like Allen, who has both male and female reproductive systems. 'Hermaphroditic' is simply the adjective form of the word."

Kanda nodded slowly as he processed the information, but then he stopped abruptly. "So then that means nothing's going to happen to his dick, right?"

Komui made a face as he thought hard about the answer to the question. "In that it's not going anywhere, yes. He might experience some size changes because of the pregnancy hormones, but compared to everything else, that will probably go unnoticed."

The room fell awkwardly silent again. Allen was still bright red, and Kanda was trying to process everything he'd been told. Komui offered Allen a cloth so he could clean the gel off his stomach, but the young man didn't even notice it until the Supervisor put it directly into his hand.

Komui sighed. "Anyway, back to the matter at hand. The two of you have some decisions to make. You're going to have a daughter in four months. You need to work out a system so that raising her won't affect your duties as exorcists. Or if you decide you want to give her up, you'll have to work that out too."

Allen opened his mouth to speak, but Komui held up a hand to indicate that he wasn't done talking. "But before you decide anything, you need to know that because Allen is a parasite-type exorcist, your daughter is going to be Innocence compatible. That's how it always works when a parasite-type gets pregnant; their babies are exposed to the Innocence from the moment of conception and that leads to them becoming accommodators. Which means that your daughter _will_ be an exorcist someday. If you choose to give her up, she wouldn't leave the Order. We'd arrange for her to be adopted by someone here so that we can keep an eye on her. You would literally be watching someone else raise your child."


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Time for a lemon. ;)

.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.

 _"You would literally be watching someone else raise your child."_

I frowned deeply. This was why I hadn't wanted to see the ultrasound. I didn't want to raise a baby, but now I loved her more than anything else and had no choice. And to top it all off, she was going to be an exorcist someday. I'd only known about her for six hours and my daughter was already breaking my heart. _Today just keeps getting better._

Kanda had kept a cool head, and that was helpful. However, his temper was a time bomb. He was probably just waiting until we were alone to voice his disappointment in me. A thought that was confirmed when he disappeared the second Komui said we were free to go.

A hand on my shoulder stopped me when I tried to follow. "Allen, are you ... ok?"

"What are you talking about, Komui?"

I didn't have to turn around to know that his expression was full of worry. "Um... Kanda isn't mean to you, is he?"

"I don't understand." Kanda was mean to me all the time, and I was mean right back. _Everyone_ knew that. Why was Komui suddenly worried about it?

"Does he hit you or cause you physical harm when you're together?"

I turned around so that he could see the look of disbelief on my face. "Komui! Kanda gets violent with me every single day! You already know this! What's really going on?"

He sighed and placed his hands back on my shoulders. "Yes, I know that you two hate each other in public. But I'm talking about when you're alone. Does he treat you like that in the bedroom?"

"Oh." I blinked a few times as I figured out that Komui was worried that Kanda was somehow taking advantage of me. "No, he doesn't. The sex can get a little rough, but we get along pretty well when it's just the two of us."

Komui's frown got even deeper. I was spun to the left so that I was facing the mirror on the wall. "You don't have to lie to me, Allen. I can help you if he's mistreating you."

My eyes went wide when I saw my reflection. My right cheek was bright purple, and the bruise was unmistakably in the shape of a hand. I could see now why Komui thought Kanda was abusing me. I ran my fingertips along the edge of the bruise. "I don't understand. He didn't hit me that hard."

"So Kanda did do it."

I walked closer to the mirror so that I could get a better look at the bruise. "Yeah, but it's not what you're thinking. I was being overly emotional-"

"Mood swings?"

I blinked as I recalled that sudden and unexpected anger. "Ah. So that's what that was... Anyway, he slapped me in order to snap me out of it. But it wasn't hard enough to hurt. It didn't even sting. It certainly shouldn't have bruised."

I turned back to Komui. "Why did it bruise?"

It was obvious from the expression on Komui's face that he didn't believe me, but he at least put a little thought into his answer. "It's hard to say. Because you're pregnant, it could be any number of things. But you _are_ underweight. It's possible that you have a nutrient deficiency that's making you bruise more easily."

Of course it came back to food. "Or?"

"Or you're lying, and your baby's father is intentionally causing you harm to assert his dominance over you."

Komui's readiness to believe that Kanda was hurting me on purpose made me sad. "First of all, if I was going to lie about it, I wouldn't have admitted that Kanda hit me. Second, Kanda doesn't need violence to dominate me. He doesn't need to dominate me at all. That's not the dynamic of our relationship."

"If you don't mind my asking, what _is_ the dynamic of your relationship?"

I did mind. A lot. But we'd just spent the last couple hours discussing every private part of my body, in detail. I had no embarrassment left. "We make each other feel better."

Komui clearly didn't like my answer. "So he uses you for sex."

My fingers returned to the bruise on my cheek. "That's what I thought was happening, and I was fine with it. But he got really mad when I said that to his face earlier today. Apparently he does have feelings for me."

"What about you?"

The question made me look up at Komui. "Huh?"

He laughed briefly. "Do you have feelings for him?"

I frowned. "What does any of this have to do with-?"

"You're pregnant with _Kanda's_ baby, Allen. I'd be asking these same questions of anyone in your position."

"Oh... ... I- I don't know." I didn't want to lie, but I wasn't ready to say it out loud. I hadn't even said it to _him_ yet.

If Komui knew I was lying, he didn't let on. He gave me an ice pack for the bruise on my cheek and sent me away.

To my surprise, Kanda was waiting for me outside of the infirmary wing. He didn't say a word, not even to acknowledge the oversized ice pack I was pressing to my cheek. But that was Kanda. It would have been weirder if he _had_ expressed concern.

He followed me to the cafeteria, which was fortunately empty of our friends; I didn't want to have to explain the bruise on my cheek, or have another argument over how much I was eating.

Lavi entered the room as we were putting our dishes away. He looked like he was going to ignore me, but then a worried look crossed his face and he started to come closer. I turned to hide the bruise on my cheek, and as such, I didn't see the expression on Kanda's face before he suddenly grabbed me and started dragging me off.

I fought and struggled, but he didn't let go. It wasn't until we reached the hallway to his room that I realized what he was after. But why was he being so rough about it? Why didn't he just say that he wanted sex?

.x.x.

The door to Kanda's room slammed behind the two young men. Allen was finally released when the other turned to lock the door. He tried desperately to figure out what the samurai was thinking, but knew from experience that it was really no use trying.

When Kanda turned back to face Allen, who was still standing awkwardly in the middle of the room, he spoke only two words. "Moyashi. Strip."

His tone brooked no argument. Allen swiftly did as he was ordered. The last time Kanda got like this, the sex had been rough and the bruises had lasted for weeks. And with how easily he was bruising right now, Allen really didn't want a repeat of that. He was more than willing to participate in whatever sexual activity Kanda was planning though. In his mind, this was going to be their last hoorah; after the sex tonight, he'd be alone. Broken-hearted and pregnant.

The sweater hit the ground first. It was immediately followed by boots, socks, and pants, leaving the white haired mother-to-be in just his undershirt and ill-fitting boxers. Kanda's scowl deepened and he growled. "Completely."

The tone made Allen frown, but he complied. His boxers were tugged off his hips and they fell to his ankles. After a brief moment of hesitation, the undershirt joined the rest of the clothing on the floor, leaving Allen completely exposed.

Kanda just stared at him. In Allen's self-conscious, hormonal state, it looked like his lover was debating whether or not he still wanted to proceed after seeing his thicker body. He was painfully aware of his wider hips and fuller ass, not to mention his bloated belly and the lumps on his chest that were on their way to being full-fledged female breasts. It wasn't possible that Kanda still found him attractive. He figured he'd be kicked out before he'd be able to put his clothes back on.

He had no way of knowing that Kanda was actually incredibly turned on. In fact, Kanda was so aroused that it had taken almost all of his willpower just to wait until they were alone for this. He'd been sporting an erection ever since the ultrasound. He wanted Allen even more now that he knew the boy was pregnant.

The changes to his lover's body that had worried him the night before were now beautiful. The hips that were widening to allow the boy to give birth naturally, the developing breasts that would soon be producing milk for their child, the belly where the baby itself was growing; it all made Kanda even more attracted to Allen. The small part of his brain that wasn't clouded with lust was kicking the rest of him for having a pregnancy fetish.

Someday the white haired exorcist would learn to take full advantage of how horny his pregnant body made the samurai. But that night all Allen felt was fear. Fear that his unpredictable lover would hurt their unborn child.

After what felt like forever, Kanda finally spoke. "On your knees."

The order came out as a deep growl, and Allen could no longer tell if he was obeying because he wanted the sex or if he was simply too scared to disobey. He eased himself as quickly and as gently as he could to his knees.

In the time it took to close the gap between them, Kanda had stripped down to his boxers. Allen was thoroughly surprised to find himself eye level with his lover's throbbing erection; this was so far from what he was expecting to happen that he was unable to express his usual reluctance for the upcoming task.

Because he now knew what Kanda wanted him to do without having to be told. He grabbed the waistband of the samurai's boxers and slid it with a teasing slowness towards the ground. Kanda's restrained moans made Allen smirk internally. Then the boxers were forgotten as his lover's engorged cock was freed.

His face inches from the sensitive organ, Allen paused to admire his lover's size. Each breath he took was intentional, the exhales timed perfectly for teasing the samurai. Allen waited until he felt Kanda wind his fingers into his hair, the signal to continue, but what he had really been waiting for was for his own erection to start.

He leaned closer and ran his tongue along the entire length of his lover's shaft before taking just the tip in his mouth. He licked and sucked, focusing solely on the one section until Kanda was no longer restraining his moans.

Once he was satisfied with the noise level, Allen slowly began taking more of the length into his mouth. He skillfully swirled his tongue around the flesh, occasionally scraping his teeth against it. Each inch he took between his lips made Kanda's moans louder. The grip on his white hair tightened when Allen released the samurai's cock only to take it in again.

This was repeated over and over again until Allen's lips made contact with Kanda's balls; the younger's lack of a gag reflex allowing him to take the entirety of his lover's length into his mouth without choking. Allen's right hand, which had previously been gripping Kanda's hip to help him keep his balance, now slid to the samurai's groin where he began stroking and teasing the man's balls.

His left moved to his own erection, where he began pumping his length in time with his oral ministrations. He could feel Kanda's release coming and wanted to come at the same time. Not for any romantic reasons, but simply because swallowing his lover's load was more pleasant when he was distracted by an orgasm. He didn't succeed that night, but Kanda's length was far enough down his throat that he could swallow the fluid without having to taste too much of it.

Kanda felt better once he'd released. But he began growing hard once again as he gazed down at his pregnant Moyashi. The naked boy was scowling at nothing in particular, while wiping his mouth on the back of his hand. His other was still on his half-hard dick; he hadn't even gotten himself decently erect. Kanda knew full well that Allen didn't care for oral sex, not even when being on the receiving end of it, and he especially didn't like swallowing. But because of the samurai's contrary nature, that just made him like making the brat do it even more.

Keeping his left hand tangled in Allen's white hair, Kanda moved his right down to the boy's chin. He tugged upwards, forcing Allen to stand. The Moyashi tried to protest the rough treatment, but as soon as he opened his mouth, Kanda was shoving his tongue inside.

As with all their kisses, Allen wasn't sure if Kanda was trying to bring him closer or devour him. But he didn't care; the feeling was wonderful either way. Kanda's lips were forceful, almost bruising, and Allen was barely given enough time to breathe between attacks. Their mouths battled wetly, each trying to taste everything the other had to offer.

Kanda's hands traveled from Allen's head down his back, finally settling on his hips. His fingers dug firmly into the flesh, pulling his Moyashi's body closer to his own. The boy's pregnant belly wedged between them, and the friction of it moving with his heaving breaths heated them up even more.

The kissing ended rather abruptly when the backs of Allen's knees hit the edge of the bed, causing him to lose his balance and topple backwards onto the mattress. In his current breathless state, he was winded by the hard landing. Kanda took advantage of the moment to peel away from the Moyashi. He moved over to the dresser and sought out the bottle of oil he kept there. Most of the time he couldn't be bothered with it, but the last thing he wanted to do in that moment was physically hurt the mother-to-be or their child with sex.

Allen was puzzled by the appearance of the bottle. Kanda only used the oil if he was asked to; he had never fetched it of his own accord before. But his confusion was immediately pushed aside.

As soon as Allen had fixed his position on the bed, Kanda was climbing on top of him. They kissed briefly and then Kanda moved on to Allen's collarbone. He nipped and sucked at the spot until it changed colors and the Moyashi was moaning.

Satisfied with the mark, Kanda moved further down Allen's chest. The Moyashi's nipples had become incredibly sensitive lately, and messing with them was the quickest way to make him scream. He claimed that it hurt, but he never asked Kanda to stop; and the samurai knew that that meant that Allen's masochistic side liked it. Kanda sucked on one nub while he pinched and pulled the other, eliciting delicious moans from the boy beneath him.

Allen ran his fingers through Kanda's navy hair and began massaging his lover's scalp, all while being careful to leave the hair tie in place. When they first got together, he had loved to pull it out and play with the silky strands, but they'd soon figured out that the sex was actually better when the long hair stayed tied up and out of the way. So as much as he wanted to touch every inch of Kanda's beautiful hair, he restrained himself.

Kanda was also restraining himself. He wanted to caress his Moyashi's pregnant belly, lick every inch of that firm creamy mound, but he knew Allen wasn't ready for that yet. If he tried, the boy would flip out and storm off, and Kanda wasn't about to let that happen two nights in a row. He settled for lowering his body so that he was pressed against the bump without putting his weight on it.

As soon as their bodies were touching, Allen began thrusting his hips against Kanda's, increasing the friction and the heat between them. They continued like that until Allen's moans changed to indicate that he was close. Kanda released his hold on the boy, flipping him over in the process.

While Allen pushed himself onto his knees and elbows, Kanda picked up the bottle of oil. He swiftly uncorked it and poured the contents onto his hand. Then he set the bottle aside and spread the liquid over his fingers. When he turned back to Allen, the younger was waiting for him with his plump ass in the air. It didn't take much work at all for Kanda to stretch the younger's waiting hole. In fact, Allen's body had grown so accustomed to having Kanda's dick inside it over the past few years that the samurai could take him without preparing him first. But he wasn't going to do that tonight. With Allen being pregnant, Kanda was going to do what he could to make sure his Moyashi didn't get hurt. And so he put in the extra effort to make sure the teen was properly stretched and lubricated.

Allen was not particularly thrilled with Kanda's efforts. He appreciated it, he didn't want to be sore in the morning, but his patience was wearing thin. "Hurry up, Yuu."

Kanda's response to Allen's forced whisper was to brush his fingers against a very specific spot inside the younger. Allen cried out as pleasure washed over him. When he returned to his senses just seconds later, Kanda's fingers were gone. But before he could comment on the loss, the samurai was pushing his length into the waiting hole.

It only took a few thrusts for both young men to reach their limits; Kanda was so aroused by the pregnant Moyashi that his stamina couldn't keep up. But he managed to hit the boy's prostate before it was all over. Allen's knees gave out as he released, and he collapsed onto the mattress, taking Kanda with him as the samurai had also gone limp.

Kanda recovered first, quickly pulling himself off the pregnant boy and rolling him over, so that they weren't putting too much weight on the baby. He settled on his back beside the younger, working to regain control of his breathing. "Feel better, Moyashi?"

When he got no response, Kanda propped himself up on his elbow so that he could see Allen's face. The Moyashi was sound asleep. Kanda laughed briefly. Then he collected the blankets and pulled Allen close.


	5. Chapter 5

I blinked my eyes slowly open. I was warm and comfortable, and I didn't want to get up. Yet what I saw startled me into alertness. This wasn't my room. It was... Kanda's...

But that didn't make sense. Kanda _never_ let me stay the night in his room. He always kicked me out after sex, even waking me up to do so. He never stayed in my room either. So why had he let me stay? I'd been so positive that last night was the end of us, so why was I still here?

It wasn't until I heard him snicker behind me that I realized he was still in the bed with me. "Something on your mind, Moyashi?"

"What- ...? Why- ...?"

He laughed at my confusion. "We're going to have to get used to sleeping in the same bed at some point, right?"

"...What are you talking about?"

Kanda's arm moved from around my shoulders. I wondered what he was up to, but then his hand was placed on my belly. The feeling made me try to squirm away, which only made him laugh again. "We're going to be parents in a few months, Moyashi. It's time for us to stop pretending that we hate each other."

I frowned. "I don't understand. You... want the baby?" It was the only thing I could think of that made any sense. "But I thought-"

"Moyashi." There was an anger in my nickname that made me flinch. "If the rest of that sentence is 'I thought you'd make me raise our daughter alone' then we're going to have a problem."

"It's not." I couldn't help the tears that started to fall. "I thought you'd hate me for-"

The hand that was still on my shoulder tightened so painfully it made me yelp. "Don't you _dare_ finish that sentence, Moyashi."

Once again, I struggled to free myself from his grasp. Last time it amused him, but this time it only seemed to make him angrier. My tears fell harder as his grip grew stronger, but then he suddenly let go. Finally free, I hurried out of the bed and ran for the door, not caring that I was naked.

.x.x.

I caught Allen before he made it to the door. He buried his face in my neck and continued to sob. I wanted to cry too. I wouldn't, but I wanted to.

I had thought the Moyashi understood my feelings. I thought he knew without me having to say it that I loved him. I thought our little spat the day before was him being stupid from the pregnancy hormones that were wreaking havoc on his body. Apparently, I was wrong. Very wrong. He really did think that I was just using him for sex, that his pregnancy was a reason for me to dump him and move on.

It hurt me deeply, but worst of all: it was my own damn fault. If I had just said those three stupid little words back when I first realized I felt them, then we wouldn't be having this problem. And if I didn't correct that and say them right now, I would lose my Moyashi and our daughter.

"Moyashi. I need you to shut up. Just shut up and listen and don't interrupt. Can you do that?" After a couple seconds that seemed like an eternity, I felt him nod against my chest, his messy white hair bobbing adorably. I took a deep breath; despite my resolve, expressing my feelings wasn't something that I was even remotely good at. "I know you love me. I've known that from the very beginning."

His silver eyes were huge as he looked up at me, the question he wanted to ask was written all over his face. The expression made me smile just a little. "You never would have slept with me if you didn't."

I wrapped my arms tighter around him as I sighed. It was clear he wanted to say something, but he remembered to keep his mouth shut. "I didn't need you to say the words. But I should have realized that _you_ would. You are my opposite in so many ways, and I should have known that that was one of them. I should have known that non-verbal clues weren't enough. I should have known that you needed me to actually voice my feelings. And if I had just ...noticed that then I could have saved us so many fights and misunderstandings and whatever the hell this is. However, unlike you, I'm not good at all this emotional crap, so pay attention because I'm only going to say this once. I love you, Allen. And I have for a while now. I returned to the Order for you, let my Innocence crystallize for you. I would never leave you, _especially_ not now that you're pregnant."

"Kanda-"

"I'm not done yet, Baka." I shoved his face into my chest, muffling whatever it was he was going to say. "I don't give a damn about the baby. Honestly, I'd rather this not be happening, but I am not the type of man who can just walk out on his family. I know you've already decided to keep the brat, so I'll be there every step of the way."

I released Allen and he immediately glared at me. "I don't want you to stay just because you feel _obligated_ to."

"What did I just finish saying, Baka?" I flicked his forehead. "I'm staying because I love you."

His glare immediately turned into a smirk, and I knew I'd been had. He'd been pretending to be upset to make me say it again. I scowled at him, but the smirk only stayed on his face for a few seconds before it morphed into his usual bright smile. I shoved him away in annoyance. "Happy now, Moyashi?"

"I'd be happier if you'd use my real name again, but I'll take what I can get." He shrugged and walked over to the pile of his clothes on the floor.

As he bent over to pull his boxers on, I noticed something disturbing. "Oi, Moyashi, what happened to your face?"

He snorted, but continued getting dressed. "You did."

I was confused by the annoyance in his voice. "When did I hit you hard enough to bruise like that?"

"Yesterday." His annoyance hadn't faded.

"I did _not_ hit you that hard yesterday."

He snorted again. " _I_ know that. But my body doesn't. Supposedly, I'm nutrient deprived because of the baby, and I'm going to bruise easily until it's fixed. See?"

He angled his upper body towards me; the shoulder I'd gripped just ten minutes earlier was already starting to turn purple. He frowned at it for a moment and then he suddenly smirked at me. "You're going to have to learn to be _gentle_ with me."

I frowned at the smug comment, the tone of his voice made me want to smack him. Then what he'd said before that hit me. "...'Supposedly'?"

I was not prepared for his next words. "It was the only theory I could get from Komui. He thinks you're abusing me."

.x.x.

In the time it took me to pick my sweater up and pull it on, Kanda was dressed and gone. I knew exactly where he was going and debated following him, but I really didn't want to see what was going to happen to Komui when Kanda tracked him down. Instead, I leisurely finished getting dressed and made my way to the cafeteria.

My mind was somewhere completely different as I walked. Kanda loved me. That felt amazing to finally hear. On the other hand, he'd apparently felt that way about me for a long time. I felt incredibly stupid for never noticing. Especially when he'd known about my feelings for him all along.

I felt better about being pregnant too, knowing that Kanda was at least going to be there. It was more than I had hoped for. The man did not seem like he would want to be responsible for a baby, and he certainly wasn't the type to be excited to be a father. That he wanted to stay with me despite all that meant a lot.

Because I was so lost in thoughts of Kanda, there were no self-conscious feelings as I ordered nearly double my usual amount of food. I didn't even notice that Jerry asked me if I was doing ok.

I was snapped out of my reverie the second I sat down with my friends, though if I had been putting conscious thought into my actions, I wouldn't have sat with them. I had things to tell them that I very much didn't want to say.

"Oh my god! What happened to your face?"

I blinked at Lenalee's outburst. It took me a second to figure out what she was talking about. I rolled my eyes in annoyance at the question, knowing full well that this wouldn't be the last time I heard it. "Kanda."

"Oh, right. Duh. That was a stupid question, wasn't it? Things must have gotten a little out of control while you were training together yesterday, right?"

I nodded as I began to eat; it was easier to let her think that it was a training accident than to explain what really happened. Because, like her brother, she'd jump to thinking he'd done it on purpose.

She let it drop, going back to the conversation everyone else was having, though I caught her eyeing my pile of food several times. I focused on eating, but I found myself drawn into the talking more than I usually would have.

Something that didn't go unnoticed when Lavi joined us a little while later.

"You're in a good mood this morning, Allen." If there was one good thing about the weight I'd been gaining, it was that the redhead had finally stopped calling me 'Bean Sprout'. "You're wearing the same clothes as yesterday, too. You got laid last night, didn't you?"

I choked on my mouthful of food. Lenalee did a spit take. The others around us had similar reactions. I glared at him. "Now is not the time to talk about that."

Lavi fell silent, but I caught the spark in Lenalee's eyes. "That wasn't a denial, Allen. Does that mean it's true? You're sleeping with someone?"

I dropped my gaze to my lap, trying to figure out how to best word what I had to say. After years of secrecy, it was going to be hard to come clean. I debated keeping my mouth shut, but Lavi already knew, and he would have no qualms about outing me to the entire cafeteria. Plus it would undoubtedly be easier to explain my pregnancy if everyone already knew that I was gay.

Lavi laughed at Lenalee's reaction. "Oh he's _more_ than 'sleeping with someone'. From what I've heard, he's in a pretty serious relationship. With a guy."

Lenalee snorted in disbelief. "Yeah right. There's no way Allen's gay. Right, Allen?"

Once again, Lavi beat me to a response. "Oh I got that straight from him, so he better not try to deny it."

I narrowed my eyes at Lavi. "There's no point in denying it, not when you clearly can't keep a secret."

"Hey! You never said that it was a secret!"

I ignored Lavi's pout, and instead turned to Lenalee. To be honest, hers was the reaction I was most afraid of, everyone else's was unimportant in comparison. A million different emotions flickered across her face. It finally settled on hurt. "Why would you tell Lavi and not me?"

"I only told Lavi because your brother told him first." That answer only seemed to upset her more. I sighed and placed my hand on her knee. "Relax. He only knew because it came up in my exam yesterday. You would have been the first person I told if the circumstances were different."

She nodded slowly. "So, who...? No. Never mind, that's a stupid question. There's no way you'd answer it. Umm... Lavi said it's a serious relationship. Just how serious is it?"

 _'I'm carrying his baby.'_ It was the perfect opportunity, but I couldn't make myself say the words. I removed my hand from Lenalee's knee and placed it on my belly. The baby shifted as if she felt my anxiety.

All eyes were glued on me as they waited for an answer; everyone who was in hearing range of the conversation was watching me. Maybe that's why I couldn't announce my pregnancy, there were too many people around. I'd have to start with telling just Lavi and Lenalee. In the meantime, I needed to answer the question I'd been asked. "If it were allowed, we'd probably be married."

The silence that followed my words was deafening. "Can we change the subject now, please?"

Everyone immediately went back to their own conversations. I turned my attention to my food and ignored everything else until my plates were empty. But even with the huge pile of dishes I had eaten, I was still hungry.

Given that I'd basically been starving myself for the last six weeks, that wasn't particularly surprising. No, what was surprising was what I was hungry for: tempura shrimp and orange juice.

I took the first as proof that the baby was Kanda's. I'd been craving his favorite foods lately, most of which I didn't particularly care for, and being pregnant with his kid certainly explained why.

The other was just weird. I had absolutely no idea why I wanted to dip shrimp in orange juice. But I did. And it sounded absolutely delicious too.

Going to get more food was embarrassing. Not only because of the weight gaining thing, but because word of my sexual orientation had reached Jerry. The whole time he was preparing my food, he was gushing over me, going on and on about how wonderful it was that I had found love.

When I returned to our table, everyone but Lavi and Lenalee had left, and I knew the second I sat back down that they'd be using the relative privacy to bombard me with questions. So I gave them a look that would shut them up until I finished eating, and then began to dig into my food.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: This is my favorite chapter of this story. ;)

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It was quiet for a bit, but that changed the next time I looked up. Lenalee looked really green and she was watching my every move. "Allen, that's disgusting."

I frowned at the piece of orange juice dipped shrimp that was halfway to my mouth. "Really? I thought it tasted pretty good."

She covered her mouth and gagged when I offered it to her. I shrugged as I ate it. Lavi laughed at the whole exchange. "Relax, Lenalee, Allen's just got weird tastes. I mean, he does like men after all..."

"Those two things have absolutely nothing to do with each other."

Lavi ignored me. "It's so weird to think that you'd rather sleep with me than with Lenalee. I think we all thought the two of you would end up together."

I snorted. "Don't flatter yourself, Lavi. I may like men, but if I had to choose between you and her, I'd choose her."

Lavi and Lenalee shared a smirk. She threw her arm around my shoulder. "Oh come on, Allen. Can't we at least tease you a little for being gay?"

"No." As I pushed her arm away, I recalled something Komui had said the afternoon before. I wondered if telling them _that_ would make it easier to tell them about the baby. The only way to find out was to try.

I broke the silence with a sigh. "Technically I'm not gay, because... _technically_... I'm ... not male..."

Lenalee and Lavi shared a confused look. He spoke the question that was on both their minds; it was the one I was expecting, though it was worded a little too crassly for my liking. "We've both seen your penis, Allen. How can you not be male?"

This was the embarrassing part. "I... have... female parts too."

"So... what? Then you're a ... hermaphrodite?" I nodded at Lavi's hesitant question. He looked like I had completely blown his mind.

On the other hand, Lenalee just looked confused. "Why would you tell us this? It's so beyond personal. I would think that you'd prefer to let us think that you're gay. ... _Oh_."

Her eyes went wide as understanding dawned on her. I knew from that expression that she'd figured it out, but her next question confirmed it. "How far along are you?"

"Twenty two weeks." The words made me squirm a little.

The look of shock on Lenalee's face was priceless. I could tell she hadn't expected me to actually answer the question. But despite her shock, it only took her a few seconds to ask another question. "And you've known this for _how_ long?"

I smiled gently at the offense in her voice; I knew she was really asking why I hadn't told her yet. "Since just before lunch yesterday."

Lenalee relaxed immediately, but then she was invading my personal space. I backed away as best I could without falling off the bench, but she caught me in her hug. "Has it started to kick yet?"

I nodded and she started squealing, tightening her grip on my shoulders. "Oh my god! That's so amazing!"

 _Me being pregnant is 'amazing'?_

"What the hell are you two talking about?"

I blinked at Lavi; I had kind of forgotten he was there. I didn't know what to say to him; even with Lenalee knowing, I apparently still wasn't ready to say the words 'I'm pregnant' out loud.

But she seemed to sense that. She let go of me and leaned across the table towards Lavi. "What can women do that men can't?"

He frowned and narrowed his one green eye at her. "I feel like that's a trick question."

She kicked his shin playfully. " _Biologically_ , moron."

Lavi frowned as he thought. "Biologically... Women can ... have babies..." His focus immediately snapped to me. "You're _pregnant_?!"

"Ssh! Not so loud!" I don't know whether I was thankful or upset that Lenalee hadn't just told him outright, but he knew now, so it didn't matter.

"Allen."

I smiled weakly at Lavi, my arms subconsciously wrapping around my middle. "It's true."

Lavi's expression went from stunned to mind-blown in a split second. I stared at my lap while I waited for him to collect his thoughts.

He let out a deep breath. "That's why Komui went psycho yesterday, isn't it? He thought I did it."

I nodded without looking up; I knew what his next question was going to be. "So who _did_ do it?"

"I'm not going to answer that." I wasn't ready to tell them that I was sleeping with Kanda; that was the one thing I knew for sure that they wouldn't take well.

Lenalee placed a hand on my shoulder. "Will you at least give us context so that we don't have to worry about you?"

"What do you mean?" I looked up at her, but after seeing her concerned expression, I wished I hadn't.

"Well, for starters, is the baby's father the same guy you're dating - the one you'd marry if it was allowed?"

I narrowed my eyes at her. "That wasn't what I meant when I said that earlier. I was making a point, not saying that I actually wanted to marry him."

"Answer the question, Allen."

I sighed and dropped my gaze back to my lap. "Yes. It's his baby."

"And what are his thoughts on all this?"

I couldn't help snorting in irritation. "Like I know what the hell that guy's thinking."

"Allen?"

"Oops, sorry." I smiled at the confused look Lenalee was giving me. "He says he's going to stay with me, but I'm not sure that the reality of having a baby has actually hit him yet."

"What about you?" I turned to look at Lavi, confused by the question. He looked me over before he clarified. "Has the reality hit you yet?"

I snorted again. "You mean, have I realized that my life's over? That I'm now so responsible for the life of another that my own wants and needs mean nothing?"

The looks on their faces made me smile. "Relax guys, I'm joking." The looks didn't go away. "Seriously though, I haven't even known about her for twenty four hours yet, but I'm already madly in love with my baby. I'd do anything for her."

"So... then... You're going to keep it?" Lenalee went back to being bubbly and squealy when I nodded. "I'm going to be an aunt! ... Wait! Wait! You said 'her'. Twice. You're having a girl?"

I nodded and she began invading my personal space again. "Can I feel her?"

"No." Her face fell, and that made me sad. "I'm just not ready for that yet, Lena. Ask again in a couple days when I've had a bit more time to get used to the idea that I'm pregnant, ok?"

She nodded vigorously. Whatever she said next went unheard. My attention was drawn to the cafeteria doors as Kanda entered and approached Jerry's counter. Lenalee wrapped her arm around my shoulders as she joined me in watching Kanda order his food. "Can I _please_ be there when you tell Kanda you're pregnant?"

I turned to stare at her, completely weirded out by that request. "Why on earth would you _want_ to see that?"

"Because I want to see his reaction, duh."

I frowned at her. "Please explain that."

"Kanda has a pregnancy fetish." She said it like it was perfectly ordinary, like she was talking about the weather rather than a friend's sexual preferences.

My mind stopped. That explained _soooo_ much of what happened last night. But at the same time, I had no clue what to do with the information. If it was true then I really didn't have to worry about Kanda leaving me; at least not until after I gave birth anyway. I resumed watching him, trying to figure him out.

Lavi snickered. "That's ridiculous. Kanda's probably never had a sexual thought cross his mind, let alone be into something enough to have developed a fetish."

Lenalee made a face at him. "We grew up together, Baka. I got to see Kanda in his awkward teenage phase, or what passed for an awkward phase anyway. I can't give specific examples, but he always got really weird around pregnant women; it wasn't hard to figure out that he was aroused by them."

As Kanda approached our table, he took one glance at Lenalee hanging on my shoulders and fixed her with the dirtiest look I'd ever seen. She saw it and leaned closer to whisper in my ear. "I bet if you told him you're pregnant, he'd stop giving you those awful looks all the time. He might even start being nice to you."

I sighed. "Lena. That one's aimed at you. You should probably let go of me before he decides to break his rule about not hitting women."

She gave me a confused look, but moved back to her seat. Before I could figure out how to explain it without explaining it, Kanda was setting his tray on our table.

I had no clue how to react to his presence. Should I act like nothing had changed, or should I embrace him like I wanted to? And which reaction would _he_ want from me? I couldn't decide, so I ended up ignoring him.

He wasn't having any of that though. The first thing he did as he sat down beside me was lean over and kiss the back of my neck. I gasped at the tingles that ran down my spine. I turned to tell him off, but he seemed to know that that's what I was going to do. The second I opened my mouth, he was pressing his lips against mine. My reaction was automatic: Kanda was kissing me so I kissed him back.

We stayed that way until I had to pull away for air. I dropped my gaze to my lap as my cheeks burned red. I had just made out with Kanda in the middle of the cafeteria. It was the most mortifying method I could think of for revealing our relationship. Which was probably why he chose to do it that way.

While there were a few wolf whistles from neighboring tables, Lavi and Lenalee were simply staring at us, their mouths hanging open. It didn't look like either of them were breathing. Kanda nudged my side with his elbow. "What's with them?"

I sighed and picked at my nails, too embarrassed to look at anything other than my lap. "Well, given that I just finished telling them that I'm pregnant, I'd guess their brains exploded upon learning that you're the one who did it."

Lenalee let out a squeak at my words, but otherwise there was no reaction from either of our friends. "What the hell was with that kiss anyway, Bakanda?"

The question seemed to upset him. "I already explained this, Moyashi. Figure it out for yourself."

I thought back over our conversation that morning. "You mean that thing you said about not fighting anymore?"

A brief nod was my only answer. "Oh. Okay."

I went back to my ignored food. A growl from Kanda made me drop the piece of shrimp I was holding into my glass. "What the fuck are you doing to that shrimp, Moyashi?"

"Eating it." I snorted as I retrieved the piece and popped it into my mouth.

He frowned at me. "There's no call to be treating perfectly good shrimp like that. It's just wrong."

I shrugged and dipped my next piece in my glass. "I know it's weird, but it tastes good."

He turned away from me, and even though he hid it well, I could tell he was trying not to gag. "That better be a pregnancy thing, Moyashi."

" _Oh_." The last part of me that was hoping that this was all a strange dream died. There was absolutely no denying that I was pregnant anymore. "I guess-"

"Ok, we've already had this conversation; can we get back to important things?" Lenalee was apparently ready to talk again.

I smiled sweetly at her. "And what exactly would that be, Lenalee?"

She was not amused by my feigned ignorance. "You know exactly what I mean, Allen. You had sex with _Kanda_?"

He growled at the way she said his name, but otherwise didn't react. I smiled sheepishly at her, but she spoke before I could get any words out. She looked ready to faint from shock. "Oh god! That means that he's who you were talking about when you said you wanted to get married, doesn't it?"

Now _I_ was the one who felt like passing out. I could feel Kanda's eyes on me, and after everything that had happened in the last ten minutes, I knew _exactly_ what he was thinking. I really regretted phrasing it that way now. I hurried to speak before he could propose to me. "Lenalee. I told you: I was making a point. I don't actually want to get married."

"Why not, Moyashi?" _Dammit_. I groaned and placed my forehead on the table as Kanda continued to talk. "We are having a baby, after all. Shouldn't you want to get married?"

"Can we not talk about this right now, Yuu?"

He let it drop, but I could tell from his body language that he would be bringing it back up the second we were alone. It was strange; apparently, he really did mean what he said about not fighting.

 _Lenalee_ on the other hand was not about to drop the awkward conversation. I could practically hear her grinning at my use of Kanda's first name. "So how did this happen? How did _you two_ get from hating each other to marriage and a baby?"

Kanda snorted. "There was never any 'hating each other'."

"You're forgetting those first few days, Bakanda." He gave me a blank look, so I explained further. "We didn't get together until after that first mission. We hated each other a lot before that."

My words snapped Lavi out of his stupor. "Wait. You mean you've been dating for _three years_?!"

I shrugged. "I wouldn't call what we've been doing 'dating', but yes."

Lavi raised an eyebrow at me. "What _would_ you call it then?"

I frowned. "I don't know. But 'dating' implies things like going out to dinner together, and we can't do that stuff because we're both men."

"But didn't you just say-?"

I quickly cut Lavi off. "Yes, but I _look_ male," _for now anyway,_ "and if I weren't... pregnant, no one would know any different, _right_?"

Lavi nodded at my tone. But then Lenalee started poking at the bruise on my cheek. I scowled as I bat her hand away. "Would you knock that off?!"

She didn't. "Explain something to me, Allen... How are you ok with your _boyfriend of three years_ hurting you like that?"

I swatted her hand away again and this time she actually stopped. "It was an accident, that's how. Can we drop this now?"

She shared a look with Lavi before she laughed at me. "Let's see, you're pregnant with Kanda's baby, and the two of you have been secretly dating for the last three years. I'm going to go with: we're never dropping this, ever."


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: Thanks for the reviews! I didn't realize it at the time I was writing this, but based on the dates I give for Allen's pregnancy later in the story, this chapter takes place on Kanda's birthday.

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Allen and Kanda left the cafeteria hand in hand. It was weird for Allen to be touching like that in public, but Kanda was determined that they start acting like a couple immediately, and so he wouldn't let Allen let go.

He led the Moyashi down to Komui's office where the Supervisor was waiting for them with a very confused Johnny. The scientist had been ordered to whip up some maternity clothes that would fit Allen, and he had been up all night, sewing and stewing over why a male would need such things. But that changed once he caught sight of Allen. The oversized sweater might once have fooled him into thinking the teen was just chunky, but now that 'maternity' was on his mind, he could clearly make out the teen's pregnant belly.

Komui greeted Allen cheerfully when he came into the room. "Good morning, Allen! How's the baby doing today?"

Allen glared at Komui in a perfect imitation of Kanda. He was confused about what was going on, and being asked about the baby only frustrated him further. "She's fine. Now could someone please tell me what's going on?"

The Supervisor's smile faltered slightly before it brightened again. "We made some maternity clothes for you!"

Allen's glare melted into a frown. He was less than thrilled with the idea of maternity clothes, and having them placed in his arms didn't help. "Go on! Try them on!"

Not caring that everyone was watching, or that the door was open, Allen swiftly stripped off his pants and boxers and replaced them with the ones he'd been given. He wanted to get this embarrassing situation over with as quickly as possible. But it was hard to hate what was happening when the pants turned out to be the most comfortable things he had ever worn.

Johnny was practically bouncing in anticipation. "Well? How do they fit?"

Allen sighed and forced a smile. "They fit great."

"Lift up your shirt so I can get a better look." Johnny stepped closer and examined the way the pants sat on Allen's body. "They're a little big, but that's good, you're only going to be getting bigger from here on. And they support your belly well enough, but I don't think that I used a stretchy enough material... I'll have to find something better for the next batch." He beamed up at Allen. "Try on the shirt now."

Allen frowned at that. "Can't I just keep wearing sweaters? They fit fine."

Kanda snickered from where he was leaning against the door he'd closed while Allen was changing. "You can if you want, Moyashi, but next week is the start of summer. It's going to start getting hot soon..."

"Ugh. Fine." Allen reluctantly pulled off his sweater and undershirt and replaced them with the flowing pale blue shirt Johnny handed to him. He frowned as he looked down at himself. It was clear to everyone that he was unhappy. "I look pregnant."

Kanda let out a snort of irritation mixed with amusement. "You _are_ pregnant, Moyashi."

"I know that, Bakanda. But it... It's just so weird to see it like this."

While they bickered, Johnny examined the shirt. It fit the teen, but not nearly as well as the pants did; the shirt had been designed for a flat-chested male, so it looked slightly awkward over Allen's budding breasts. But it accentuated his baby bump nicely. There would be no denying he was pregnant, but at the same time, it didn't draw any unnecessary attention to the bulge.

Johnny tugged on the fabric to get Allen's attention. "You're good to go. This style isn't going to work on you for very long, but you'll probably have outgrown it before then, so it shouldn't be a problem."

Allen frowned down at the ensemble. He hated how pregnant it made him look, and he was still mortified by the idea of maternity clothes, but there was no denying that he hadn't been this comfortable in clothing in a long time. At least he could be grateful that none of it was pink or girly. And if Kanda truly had a pregnancy fetish like Lenalee claimed...

He smiled at Johnny. "Thank you."

The scientist beamed and excused himself to go back to his work. Allen glanced through the pile of clothes that were on the desk; it wasn't much, but there was more than he expected given how short of notice Johnny must have had. He gathered up the garments and turned to leave, but Kanda stopped him. "Moyashi. I need you to explain that comment you made at breakfast."

Allen frowned down at the clothes in his arms. He knew exactly what comment Kanda was referring to. "I'm not going to marry you just because you got me pregnant."

Kanda's scowl turned thoughtful. He was running out of ways to tell Allen that his love for him had nothing to do with the baby. Though with his lack of social skills, he hadn't had many in the first place.

But Komui spoke up before the samurai could come up with anything. "Actually, Allen, you don't have a choice. The Order has very strict policies regarding relationships and families. If you want to keep the baby then you're going to have to get married."

Allen gaped at the Supervisor. "You're making that up."

"I'm not." He really wasn't. He had found the rules the day before and planned to use them to mess with Lavi, but that had all gone out the window when it turned out that Kanda was the one who fathered Allen's baby. He had been planning to help the pair find a loophole, but when it turned out that Kanda actually wanted to marry Allen and raise their child, Komui decided to enforce the rules. It was better to let Allen think he had to marry his baby's father than to risk staring down Mugen again.

"But what about the homosexuality thing?" Allen was grasping at straws to find any way out. "Surely us both being men changes things, right?"

Komui gave him a slight smile. "You're not male, Allen."

Allen's face fell. He should have known that that was coming; he'd used it on his friends at breakfast barely an hour earlier. Kanda kissed him to keep him from complaining again. "I want to marry you, Allen. Do you want to marry me?"

"Yes, of course I do, Yuu! But-!"

Kanda silenced him with another kiss. "Then stop complaining. I know you don't want your pregnancy to be the reason for it, but if it weren't for the baby, we wouldn't have this opportunity. So shut up and marry me."

Allen snorted. "That's a very romantic proposal, Bakanda."

"What? You expected me to get down on one knee?" Kanda laughed. "Don't be ridiculous, Moyashi."

The pair kissed once more. Komui shook his head at them. Despite seeing it with his own eyes, it was hard for him to believe how perfect they were together. "Alright, that's enough you two. No making out in my office."

Allen blushed as they broke apart, and that just made Kanda smirk more. Komui stared sternly at the pair. "Now that we're all on the same page, you have two options: you can either fill out the paperwork now, or we can put together a wedding ceremony. Which will it be?"

"Paperwork."

They said it in unison, without consulting each other. Kanda turned to Allen in surprise. "Really, Moyashi? I thought you'd want to have a ceremony."

Allen snorted. "Maybe. But if we do that then Lenalee is going to make me wear a wedding dress. And there's no way in hell that that's going to happen."

Komui guided them through the paperwork; he had already prepared the documents because he knew that it was what Kanda would want and had suspected that the samurai would get his way. Once the pair signed the pages, it was official: Allen and Kanda were married. All that was left were the wedding rings, which, with Komui's robot-building expertise, had been a cinch for the Supervisor to make. The simple silver bands were placed on each other's ring fingers, and at Komui's prompting, they kissed once more to seal the deal.

Less than ten minutes later, they stood in the doorway of their new room. Or maybe 'suite' would be a better descriptor. What they were actually standing in was the doorway from the hall into their new private living room.

Allen's mouth hung open in awe as he wandered through the attached rooms: a bedroom for him and Kanda with its own private bathroom and a bed that looked absolutely huge, two smaller unfurnished bedrooms, and a second bathroom that opened into the living room. It was way too much space for the two, soon to be three, of them. "It's too big."

Komui laughed. "I know that, Allen. But the other rooms that were ready were too small. And you'll want the space once your family starts to grow."

Allen frowned down at his belly. He'd only been pregnant for a day and Komui was already making jokes about him having more kids.

Oblivious to the teen's inner turmoil, the Supervisor kept talking. "We'll get one of the smaller bedrooms furnished for the baby. In the meantime, you two can work on getting all your things from your old rooms moved in here. Ok?"

The newlyweds nodded and Komui left them alone.

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I collapsed on the couch. The maternity clothes I was wearing were so comfortable that it was making me uncomfortable. And the fact that they didn't hide my baby bump made me even more so. I'd been hiding that bulge for so long that it freaked me out to actually see my belly when I looked down.

And that's when my eyes landed on the bedroom that Kanda and I would be sharing for the rest of our lives. It was just that morning that he had joked about learning to sleep in the same bed, and now, a little over two hours later, we no longer had separate bedrooms. Suddenly the ring on my finger felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. I couldn't stop the tears from falling. "How did I get here?"

Kanda sat beside me and pulled my head onto his lap. He stroked my hair, but didn't say a word. "I should be worried about akuma and what the Earl is up to, not maternity clothes and wedding rings. How did I end up married and pregnant?"

I let out a sob as the baby kicked. "I'm an exorcist, not a housewife! But, god, I love our daughter so much it hurts. I'm already stressing about scaring off boys and having to teach her to fight. It wasn't all that long ago when I had real worries, like whether or not the Fourteenth would succeed at taking over my body."

"Moyashi..."

I didn't hear the rest of his sentence, I was crying too hard. But Kanda didn't try to make me listen, he just held me while I continued to vent. "And then there's you! How did I end up married to _you_? You're not even truly human. You're a soul placed in an artificial body. You have an entire life that you don't remember! How are you ok with all this?! With me?! Better yet: how am _I_ ok with it?! I've known your past for _years_ and yet I'm still as madly in love with you as I was back when we first started sleeping together! God, and it was just this time yesterday that I thought you were using me for sex, too. And now here we are: _married_."

Kanda growled at me when I paused for breath. "Please stop saying the word 'married' like that. It's making me want to jump you."

I blinked up at him, my frustrations completely forgotten. "Huh?"

He bent down and kissed my forehead. "I get that you're freaked out, Allen. You've had to take in a lot over the past twenty four hours. And I'm sure the baby hormones aren't making it any easier on you. But it's different for me. I've got you lying in my lap, carrying my baby, and wearing the ring you put on after vowing to spend the rest of your life with me. For the first time in ... as far back as I can remember, I feel whole."

'Whole'. That was a good word for how I felt about him. He was my other half, and now he was mine forever. We were one. That ring now felt like it was part of my hand.

"As for the other thing..." I blinked at him. There was another thing? I was definitely not listening to myself complain. "You are _not_ useless. You may not be able to fight right now, but you _are_ helping the war effort. After all, not just anyone can _make_ a new accommodator."

Right. I wasn't sidelined; I was on the very important mission of creating a new exorcist. I sat up and kissed him. "Thank you, Yuu."

We kissed again and this time we didn't stop. Before I realized what was happening, I'd been carried to the bed and stripped of everything but my wedding ring. Kanda was naked as well, and he was kneeling over me and kissing my rounded stomach. It felt weird, but I wasn't about to tell him to stop. That's when I saw that glint in his eyes. "Dear god, it's true."

"Hmm?" He looked up at me without taking his lips off my belly.

"You really do have a pregnancy fetish."

He scowled fiercely at me; it was meant to be a denial, but it only confirmed everything. "Where the fuck did you get that idea, Moyashi?"

"Lenalee told us at breakfast this morning." I couldn't help smirking at him. "Apparently you had an awkward teenage phase."

Kanda's scowl deepened. He growled at me for a moment, but then he suddenly stopped. "'Us'?"

I blinked at him. "Uh, yeah. Lavi was there too."

He was off the bed in a heartbeat, but I caught his wrist before he could stalk away. "Come back to bed, Yuu. That can wait. Finish what you started."

Kanda froze, but he didn't come back. He just stood there staring at me, so I got up and wrapped my arms around his waist. I tried not to laugh at him, but it was too funny. "You're actually embarrassed by this, aren't you?"

He growled at me, but that just made me laugh more. "Well, you've got no reason to be. I don't care."

"Moyashi?"

I leaned in and kissed his neck. "So you like pregnant women. _I_ certainly can't judge you for liking something weird. And as it turns out, it's not all that weird. I mean, it's not like any of us could have predicted that you'd get _me_ pregnant, right?"

His body relaxed with my words, but I could tell that something was still bothering him. "Actually, it was probably a lie to say that I don't care. I think ... that I ... might ... like it a lot. If this means that you're going to find me attractive even when this pregnancy makes me feel fat and ugly, then-"

Kanda cut me off with a kiss. "You will always be beautiful to me, Moyashi."

With that, he allowed me to pull him back to the bed.


	8. Chapter 8

After we finished consummating our marriage, the Moyashi and I went down to the cafeteria for a late lunch. The room was alive with chatter, but it all stopped the second we walked into the room. I didn't have to hear any of it to know that everyone had been gossiping about the way we had kissed at breakfast.

And now they were staring at us. Well, more at Allen than me. Without his oversized sweater, it was obvious that he was still as skinny as ever, which only served to draw more attention to his belly.

Allen made it halfway to Jerry's counter before he noticed that everyone was staring at him. He immediately got self-conscious and froze. It didn't escape my notice that his left hand, the hand that was now adorned with the silver band that marked him as mine, was placed on his pregnant belly. I stopped behind him and whispered so low that even in the complete silence he would be the only one who could hear me. "Is there something wrong or are you being an idiot?"

When he didn't respond - _ok, 'idiot' it is then_ \- I placed my left hand on top of his, our wedding bands sitting side by side. Then I kissed the back of his neck. Unlike at breakfast, that didn't get a reaction out of him. Though given that the baby immediately kicked the spot where our hands were, maybe there was a legitimate reason for him to be acting the way he was. "Does it hurt?"

He shook his head. "No. It's just really weird."

"Che." I shoved him forward a little roughly; despite my decision for us to start acting like we love each other, I still did not have much patience for dealing with idiots. "Then stop standing here like a moron and go get your food. Baka Moyashi."

Allen and Jerry exchanged their greetings, and that snapped the people in the cafeteria out of their stupor. The room filled with chatter again, but that didn't stop me from glaring at everyone as I moved to join my husband.

I had to sit through Jerry gushing over us, which was incredibly annoying, but he was the chef, so I had no choice but to take it. The deep blush on the Moyashi's cheeks as he stuttered through explaining his pregnancy to the man made it completely worth it though.

When our food was ready, I followed the Moyashi to the table where the rest of the exorcists were sitting. If there was ever proof that Allen had changed me, that was it. I could actually stand to sit and eat with people around, and I even considered some of them friends. They were still annoying, but through the Moyashi's influence, I had learned how to not only tolerate them but appreciate them.

This was a day that was meant to try my patience though. In the middle of splitting apart my chopsticks, my left hand was pulled across the table. The action was accompanied by a girlish shriek. "What on earth are you wearing on your finger, Yuu-chan?"

"Don't call me that!" I glared death at Lavi as I forcibly yanked my hand out of his grasp. "It's a ring, moron."

The redhead was annoyed by my stating of the obvious. "I know _that._ I meant, why are _you_ wearing a ring, and why is it on your left hand?"

I couldn't answer the question because I wasn't paying attention to him anymore. The second Lavi had called attention to my ring, the Moyashi had moved so that he was sitting on his left hand. His expression remained normal as he focused on his food, which made me wonder what he was thinking. However, the fact that he was hiding his ring pissed me off a little, and I growled at him. "What do you think you're doing, Moyashi?"

"Eating." The smart-aleck response was followed by a very sincere look. Allen actually swallowed and put down his fork before he spoke; it was unexpected, but I knew that it was his way of telling me that he was giving me his full attention. "Look, it's been a long morning. I'm hungry. I need this to wait until I've finished eating, Yuu. Can you do that?"

I snorted at his request. "Che. That will only take like ten minutes, so I may as well."

As the Moyashi gave me a thankful smile and turned back to his food, Lavi reclaimed my attention with a very obnoxious comment. "Awww. You two are so cute together."

I snarled at him. "Do you want me to hurt you?"

The Usagi just responded with that obnoxious smile of his that made me want to hurt him even more. "No, I want you to answer my question. Why are you wearing a ring, Yuu-chan?"

It took all of my self-control to remain seated and not run Lavi through with my sword. "Do not use my first name!"

He responded with an incredibly obnoxious whine. "But you let Allen use it!"

I snapped at him, not realizing what I'd said until after the words were out. "Allen is my husband; he's allowed to use my first name. You're an annoying rabbit. You're not allowed to use it."

Fortunately, no one seemed to notice my slip up. Not even the highly observant Lavi caught it; he just continued to whine about how unfair it was that I wouldn't let him use my first name. Taking advantage of the lucky break, I tuned out the rabbit and focused all my attention on my food.

The peace didn't last long though, as someone _had_ noticed my slip up. Not that I knew that that was why the idiot Moyashi had suddenly started squirming in his seat. He was doing an incredibly poor job of concealing a grin as he ate, and it just grew more and more irritating.

But before I could snap and tell him to knock it off, he suddenly slapped his hand over his mouth and bolted from the table. The queer shade of green on his face said that he was heading to the bathroom to throw up.

He didn't make it that far.

Fortunately for everyone, he had at least made it to the garbage cans and didn't make a mess, but it was still disgusting listening to him vomit.

When he was done, he was approached by Jerry, who was obviously concerned over what had happened. But before I could go join their conversation, my attention was claimed by Lavi. The redhead was acting really weird, leaning across the table and messing with Allen's plates. I kicked him in the shin to make him stop. "What are you doing?"

"Trying to find out what made Allen sick." He stopped rifling through the plates when he reached the dish that the Moyashi had been eating. He sighed and shook his head as he set the plate back where it was. "Figures. Bacon has to be the most common thing that pregnant women can't stand."

"Don't say it like that to his face." I snorted with the joke, but then a different thought struck me. I smirked at the rabbit. "Actually, scratch that. Say it exactly like that. I'd like to see the Moyashi beat the crap out of you."

"Why am I beating up Lavi?" The Moyashi gave us a confused smile as he sat back down beside me.

Lavi quickly put a pacifying smile on his face and beat me to the explanation. "I was just telling Kanda that it's normal for people to not be able to eat bacon during pregnancy, so it's not something that should worry you."

The Moyashi scowled darkly at Lavi, putting together for himself why I thought he'd hit the redhead. "You said 'women' didn't you? The first time you said it, you compared me to a woman, didn't you?"

The Usagi swallowed hard, clearly scared by Allen's tone. But he apparently didn't have the sense to keep his mouth shut. "Well, you're pregnant, and that's a female condition, so yeah, I-"

The sound of Lavi falling to the floor after being punched in the face echoed through the cafeteria. If anyone wasn't watching us after Allen's vomiting incident, they were now.

The Moyashi glared down at Lavi, who was still reeling from the punch. "I may be married to a man and pregnant with his child, but I am _not_ a woman."

As much as I enjoyed what had just happened, I didn't want Allen to get too angry or he'd be a pain in the ass to calm down. I placed a hand on his shoulder, intending to say something soothing, but the second I made contact, he calmed down on his own and returned to his seat.

While the Moyashi returned his attention to his food, Lavi picked himself up off the floor, grumbling the whole time. When he turned those grumblings on Allen, complaining about being punched and asking for an apology, I interrupted, mostly to make sure that the Moyashi didn't give in to him. "You brought that on yourself, Baka Usagi. I told you what would happen if you opened your big, fat mouth, and you didn't listen. So drop it. The Moyashi's not going to apologize."

Allen briefly looked up to smirk at the redhead, but then his focus returned to his food. We ate in relative silence until he finished, ignoring the still grumbling rabbit across the table.

Allen laid his utensils down on his empty plate and then he leaned against my shoulder with a contented sigh. I scowled at him over the invasion of my personal space, only to find his eyes closed and a serene smile on his face. "Che. What do you think you're doing, Baka Moyashi?"

"Sleeping."

The way he said the word was absolutely adorable. I rolled my eyes at him, but didn't push him away. "If you're that tired, go back to the room and sleep on the bed. I'm not your pillow."

He giggled in response then pouted at me, all without opening his eyes. "Yes, you are. You're my husband now, that makes you the best pillow."

This time I did push him away. The Moyashi sat up and yawned, covering his mouth with his left hand while the other rubbed the small of his back. When he was done, I planned to comment on what he'd just said, but before I could, Lavi was grabbing Allen's hand in much the same way as he'd grabbed mine at the beginning of the meal. "Oh my god! You're wearing a ring too! What is going on?!"

While I scoffed at the redhead for not catching the obvious, Allen blushed bright red and gave him a nervous smile. "We got married this morning."

Lavi just blinked stupidly at him and dropped his hand. "But didn't you say at breakfast that you didn't want to get married? What changed? And why'd it happen so fast?"

The Moyashi's smile faded to a frown as he placed his elbow on the table, resting his chin in his palm. "It's because of the baby. We have to be married if we want to keep her."

What followed his declaration was twenty incredibly long and awkward minutes of explaining his pregnancy to those around us. I tried to stay out of it, but they all insisted on hearing that I was the father of his baby directly from me, so I kept getting dragged into the conversation.

The only reason that the awkwardness ended when it did was because the Moyashi let out a big yawn, leaned back against my shoulder, and instantly fell asleep. I tousled his hair, but he didn't budge. "Baka. I told you not to do that."

One of the finders, I didn't know or care what his name was, spoke and pulled my attention away from the sleeping Moyashi. "You're going to let him do that?"

"Che. I'm not going to wake him up, if that's what you're asking." I knew it wasn't, but I wasn't about to answer the real question; if I was going to admit to loving Allen, I was going to do it while he was awake and could hear me so that I wouldn't have to say it twice. "He's emotional and sleep deprived. Waking him now would be asking him to bite my head off."

Several of the others laughed, and that uncomfortable subject dropped. Lavi took the conversation in a direction I was more comfortable with. He rubbed the cheek Allen had punched earlier as he laughed at my words. "I bet. How many times has he threatened to castrate you over this?"

The question was a little surprising; that was something that the Moyashi probably should have done by now and it was weird that he hadn't threatened me at all over this. "He hasn't. He's actually taking this really well."

They all gave me looks of disbelief, so I shrugged and explained it a different way. "He's already pretty hopelessly in love with the baby. I don't think it's even occurred to him to be mad at me over this."

The chatter increased tenfold after that, and while it was somewhat fun to listen to them wonder when the Moyashi was going to flip out at me for getting him pregnant, I was done with this. I quickly finished the last few bites of my soba, and then I picked the sleeping Moyashi up and carried him back to our new room. There were a few 'aww's from the crowd, but my usual glare quickly shut them up.


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: Just to warn you, this chapter is much more serious than the last few chapters...

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It was about four days later that Allen had the meltdown that everyone had been expecting. But it was eerily quiet. He didn't scream, or get angry or violent. He spent all day crying, and not even his growling stomach could get him out of bed. Lenalee even brought food _to_ him, but he wouldn't touch it, or even acknowledge her presence.

After two days of that, someone suggested that the weird behavior was a reaction to Kanda being sent away on a mission so soon after learning of the pregnancy. But when Lenalee brought up his husband's absence, it only made Allen's crying worse, and it was clear to her that Allen hadn't even noticed that Kanda was gone. And when she mentioned the baby, telling him that he needed to eat for her sake, that's when he started throwing things. Granted it was only a pillow, but it still pissed her off.

Everyone ran when they heard Lenalee yell Allen's full name, the shout echoing through the halls. But then the eerie quiet resumed. Allen's stubbornness caved immediately under her fierce tone, and he finally voiced all of his fears and worries to the young Chinese woman.

Lenalee didn't really know what to say to him, but the suggestion that they go down to the library to find some pregnancy books seemed to snap him out of his messed up emotional state. And by the time she'd gotten him dressed and fed and to the library, the teen was back to his usual smiling self.

The books helped a lot. There were only a handful, but even one would have been enough: Allen had only ever seen pregnant women in passing before, and he knew next to nothing about the condition. Being able to read about what was happening to his body calmed his frayed nerves considerably, and he was once again excited to be having a baby.

After the meltdown, Allen no longer had troubles with thinking he was fat, and his bout with depression was over. By his twenty five week checkup, he was no longer underweight, allowing Komui to confidently tell him that he and his baby were in perfect health.

.x.x.

I expected to sleep well after learning that my baby was healthy. I did not. There was a growing burning pain in my groin that was keeping me awake. I tossed and turned and tried to ignore it, but even when I did manage to sleep, the feeling seeped into my dreams and gave me nightmares about miscarrying my baby.

But I must have eventually passed out, because the next thing I knew, the sun was shining through the curtains. The horrible pain was gone, but in its place was a feeling of intense soreness. It was a similar feeling to the morning after I had lost my virginity; but if that pain was a four on a scale from one to ten, this was a nine.

Tossing the blankets aside, I tried to sit up, but my muscles screamed at me. And that's when I noticed how wet and sticky my boxers were. Alarm bells went off in my head: they were much too soaked to have been from sweat or a wet dream.

I propped myself up on my elbows so that I could get a better look without moving my sore hips. I wished I hadn't.

My boxers and the sheet below me were both stained with blood. My blood.

But before I could scream, the bedroom door opened and Kanda and Komui came hurrying in. Seeing that I was awake, Kanda rushed to my side. He kissed my forehead and started brushing his fingers through my hair. "Ssh. Calm down, Moyashi."

Seeing that freaked out expression on his face was not helping me calm down. If anything, it made me panic more. I had never, _ever,_ seen Kanda freaked out before.

Komui was much better at masking his panic. He approached the bed calmly and had Kanda help him remove my blood-stained boxers.

Whatever it was he saw down there made him frown in thought. He sent Kanda into the bathroom for a cloth and a basin of warm water. Then he placed his hands on my belly and felt around for a moment before he spoke. "Allen, you can relax. You didn't miscarry the baby, she's perfectly fine."

That didn't make me feel better as it wasn't what had me worried; I could feel my baby girl asleep inside me and knew she wasn't in danger. I narrowed my eyes at Komui. "I already knew that. What's really going on?"

He sighed. "Whatever was bleeding isn't bleeding anymore. And that's good. But there's too much blood to tell what it was, so we're going to get you cleaned up, ok?"

Kanda returned and began wiping the drying blood away. It was hard to hold still. Not only was I sore down there, I was incredibly sensitive; every swipe of the cloth made me wince and squirm. It didn't help that whatever it was that they were seeing was making them make faces. But neither said anything until after all of the blood was cleaned up.

Kanda smirked at me. His relief was obvious behind the teasing expression. "Congrats, Moyashi. You're officially a girl."

I frowned at him as I once again tried and failed to sit up. "What-?"

"Your vagina opened last night, Allen."

At Komui's words, I bolted out of bed and into the bathroom, locking the door behind me. My panicked emotions took precedence over the pain in my groin.

I calmed a little when I saw my reflection, my pregnant body looked exactly the same as it had before I went to bed last night. Not that that was good, seeing myself pregnant was still very nerve wracking, but if _I_ couldn't see this new difference then no one else would be able to either.

Closing my eyes and taking a deep breath to keep myself from shaking, I moved my fingers down to my groin. My dick felt the same as it always had, and that was comforting. But I had to keep my fingers moving. As scared as I was, I needed to know...

Even my own tentative touch felt harsh on the sensitive folds of skin that surrounded my new opening. _Fuck, I really do have a vagina_. I wanted to curl up in a ball and cry.

 _Allen, focus. You don't want to have another meltdown._

Taking another deep breath, I opened my eyes and forced myself to look down. Not the best plan, as my view was blocked by my baby bump and bloated chest. It took a bit to get situated, but I managed to position myself so that I could see it in the mirror.

I'd seen naked women before (not on purpose, it was simply unavoidable given all the time I had spent around Master Cross), so I knew what lady parts looked like. And in that respect, what I was seeing between my legs was perfectly normal. But it was definitely not normal that _I_ had them.

A tapping at the door snapped me out of my thoughts. "Are you ok in there, Moyashi?"

I snorted. "Does it fucking seem like I'm fucking ok, Bakanda?"

He laughed a little. "You're swearing, so yes."

I stuck my tongue out at him even though I knew he couldn't see me through the closed door. Then I moved to the sink and splashed some cool water on my face.

 _Allen, breathe... This isn't a big deal. You knew it was going to happen. ...Breathe... It's how the baby is going to get out of you after all. And you love her, right? You'd do anything for her, right? ...Breathe... And you already told Lavi and Lenalee that you have it, so it's not like this is something anyone needs to know about. Right? ...Breathe..._

"Moyashi?"

I blinked at the door for a moment before I forced myself to unlock it. _Relax. Kanda's your husband. He's your baby's father. He's not the enemy. And he's already seen it. If he was going to leave you over something like this, he would have done it_ _ **long**_ _before now._

Kanda opened the door the second the lock clicked. He stepped quickly into the bathroom and pulled me into his arms. I melted into the embrace as he kissed the top of my head. "You can cry if you want, Moyashi."

I shook my head. "No. I'm- ... It's- ... I'm ok. Mostly. It's a little hard to wrap my head around, and it's completely mortifying, but I'm not going to cry. I can't afford to have a meltdown every time this pregnancy does something strange to my body. I'd never get out of bed again if that happened."

Kanda smiled at my forced laughter. "In that case, let's get you down to the cafeteria; filling your stomach will make you feel better."

Genuinely laughing now, I made my way out of the bathroom only to collapse in pain as soon as I passed through the doorway. Kanda had me in his arms before I realized what had happened. "Moyashi?"

Komui's hand was suddenly on my forehead. Apparently, he hadn't left like I thought. I pushed the hand away. "I'm ok. It's just ... sore ... down there."

It was obvious from Komui's voice that he didn't believe me. "Allen. You lost a lot of blood and you have a fever."

I pushed myself off the floor and out of Kanda's hold. "Yeah, but that's nothing a good meal can't fix. Right?"

Kanda snorted as he stood and pulled me back into his arms. "How exactly do you plan to get to the cafeteria if you can't even walk across the bedroom?"

"Like that's ever stopped me before."

Komui laughed, and that earned him a glare from Kanda. But that only made the Chinese man laugh more as he began to walk towards the door. "Have fun dealing with him, Kanda. He's your problem now."

"Oi! How do you figure that?"

"That ring on your finger." Komui's laughter followed him through the doorway. "Remember, you vowed to love him under every circumstance, and that includes when he's being a stubborn idiot."

Kanda moved as if to chase after him, but given that I began to collapse the second he let go of me, he didn't get very far. I was picked up and carried to Kanda's side of the bed. My attempt to stand up was rewarded with a hand on my shoulder pushing me back down. "Stay down, Moyashi. You need to regain your strength. I'll get your clothes."

As humiliating as it was, the pain in my groin forced me to allow Kanda to dress me as if I were a doll. He stopped me every time I tried to move on my own, he wouldn't even let me button my shirt. And then, to make it all worse, he picked me up and carried me to the cafeteria.


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: A warning if you're squeamish: the lemon in this chapter is borderline non-con.

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I felt better once I had filled my stomach, and the pain in my groin had faded enough over the course of the meal that I was able to walk back to the room on my own two feet, but I spent the rest of the day doing as little as possible. I felt fine the next day, but the pain resurfaced whenever I spread my legs too far apart - which just so happened to be every time I had to step over the benches in the cafeteria. All our friends thought that Kanda had fucked me so hard that I had gotten hurt, and while that was an embarrassing theory, it was several thousand times less embarrassing than the truth, so I wasn't about to correct them.

The pain had completely disappeared by the end of the third day, and it was no surprise that Kanda chose that night for us to have sex. Ever since we'd learned I was pregnant, he'd had trouble keeping his hands off me, yet he had managed to hold himself back for the last few days while I was recovering. It had clearly taken a lot of effort on his part, so while I didn't particularly want to let him see my changed groin, I pushed those feelings of embarrassment aside for him.

Kanda had become a lot more tender and loving in bed since our marriage - whether that was because of our marriage or because I was pregnant, I didn't know or care - but after holding himself back for so long, his old domineering style resurfaced. Not that I minded. We were both well aware that I had masochistic tendencies and that I liked it rough just as much as I liked it when he was gentle.

As soon as we were alone in our bedroom that night, Kanda captured my lips in one of those fierce kisses of his that made me feel like he was trying to eat me. I grew dizzy from a lack of air as his tongue plundered my mouth, leaving me only slightly aware of the fact that his hands were undressing me. By the time he let go and allowed me to breathe, I was wearing nothing but my shirt, which he wasted no time in pulling over my head.

I was still struggling to regain control of my breathing when he began kissing me again. I tried to fight back, but the lack of oxygen made it rather difficult. My fingers clawed randomly at his body, trying to find purchase on his shirt, only to belatedly realize that he had already stripped himself of his clothes.

Kanda grabbed my thighs, lifting me up and guiding me into wrapping my legs around his waist. We both moaned deeply at the contact, but while I was reacting to the feeling of our growing erections rubbing together, Kanda was enjoying the feeling of my bulging belly pressing firmly against his well-toned stomach.

He carried me to the bed, setting me down and situating me fully on the mattress before he climbed on top of me. He pinned my hands beside my head and he positioned his knees alongside my thighs, keeping my legs firmly pressed together as I had a tendency to kick when he got rough.

I might not have noticed it otherwise, but with my thighs pushed together like that, I became very aware of a slight dampness seeping from my groin. It was a very strange and off-putting feeling, but I wasn't given the chance to react to it or even wonder what it was. As soon as I was positioned the way Kanda wanted, he leaned down and took my right nipple in his mouth. I squirmed and cried out as he played with the sensitive nub and the tender flesh around it; my pregnancy had made that part of my body a very easy target.

Pain and pleasure coursed through my body as he nipped and sucked, and as I tried to escape his hold, I once again became aware of the dampness between my legs. I was wetter than I was before he began playing with my nipple.

There was a slight bit of panic at the realization, but when Kanda switched to teasing my left nipple and a new wave of pleasure coursed through me, I suddenly understood. That strange dampness was coming from my vagina; I was wet because that's what happens to female parts during sex.

That thought was so disturbing that I decided my only way to cope with it was to stop the sex, but when I found my voice and asked Kanda to stop, that only spurred him on. He trailed his tongue along my skin, up my neck, where he began to tease that sensitive spot at my jawline. In retrospect, that was something I should have known would happen. It took a lot to stop Kanda once he got started, and I was far too incoherent to muster that kind of strength.

The feeling of being wet down there was still beyond strange, but at least it was a lot easier to deal with now that I knew what it was. I was able to ignore it and just focus on the feelings of pleasure that came from Kanda touching me.

He worked his way back down my chest, stopping occasionally to mark spots along the way. His hands eventually freed mine, letting go as he began to focus all his attention on my belly. I moaned deeply as he caressed my stretched skin, fisting my hands into the sheets at the intense pleasure that came from his ministrations.

I knew what was coming next; the only step remaining was for Kanda to thrust into me. And as he finally moved his knees, forcing me to spread my legs instead of squeezing them closed, I wondered if he was going to stretch me first like he'd been doing lately, or if he was going to go back to his old way of just taking me.

I got my answer just a few seconds later as he hitched my right leg over his shoulder and thrust into me without preparing me first.

I threw my head back and screamed at the feeling of his length filling me. A few stray tears escaped as I shouted every curse word I could think of inside my head. Kanda had used the wrong hole. His dick was inside my vagina.

I did not want that to happen. I wanted to pretend I was still male and ignore the female parts of my body. I thought Kanda knew that. I thought he knew that I didn't want to be taken vaginally. It both scared and confused me that he had done so.

And those feelings only grew stronger the more he thrust into me. The sensation of his length moving inside my new slick passage only made me feel worse. It felt so very wrong to have him touch me like that.

For the second time that night, I tried to get Kanda to stop what he was doing. I did better at it this time, I was completely coherent now that I was no longer enjoying what was happening, but it still didn't work. No matter how much I kicked and screamed at him, he never faltered in his rhythm. And that only made me even more frustrated. In the end, I resigned myself to waiting until he finished. After all, it wouldn't be much longer before he reached his end.

Resigned to my fate, I lay back and stared at the ceiling while I waited for Kanda to finish. It was incredibly uncomfortable listening to the wet squelching sounds that accompanied his thrusts into my passage, and the noises that came from him kissing my neck were accompanied by a heavy breathing that I wasn't used to noticing. It all served to make me even less aroused.

But before it got too awkward, Kanda's breath hitched, and it was followed by a low moan as he released inside me. The feeling of his seed filling my vagina made me squirm; it felt the same as always and yet so different that I could barely stand it. But it didn't matter now. The sex was over. In just a few seconds, Kanda would have recovered enough to pull out of me, and then I would be free to have words with him. Or to take a long, hot shower and try to pretend that this whole thing never happened.

I felt gross. Disgusting and used. Even back when I thought Kanda was using me for sex, I had never felt like that before. Not even when he would coerce me into sucking him off. I had always wanted and enjoyed sex with him prior to that night.

And that's when the pregnancy hormones kicked in.

As Kanda pulled out of me, I found myself sobbing uncontrollably. He blinked at me, obviously startled by the sudden flood of tears. "Moyashi? What's wrong?"

Attempting to talk only made me cry harder, and it was all I could do to shake my head at him and try to convey that it was nothing. He didn't buy it, if the intensely worried look on his face was anything to go by, and he began caressing my belly. "Is it the baby? Is she hurting you?"

The concern in his voice only made me feel even worse, which in turn made me cry harder. Kanda leaned down to kiss my belly, and as he did, his hand drifted toward my groin. I didn't think anything of it; I was too busy trying to stop the tears, until his hand bumped against my flaccid length.

Time seemed to stop as Kanda's eyes lit up with understanding. He looked absolutely mortified, and that was an emotion I never thought I would see him show. "Did _I_ hurt you?"

The question was unexpected and it stunned my tears into stopping. It was way too weird to see Kanda feeling bad over hurting me. I didn't know how to respond. Because while the sex hadn't hurt physically, which was what Kanda was asking about, it had definitely hurt emotionally.

Taking my lack of response as a 'yes', Kanda lay down beside me, pulled me into his arms, and kissed my forehead. "I'm sorry. I thought I'd prepared you enough that it wouldn't hurt when I took your virginity."

I blinked at him, beyond confused by his words. "What are you talking about? You took my virginity years ago."

He stared at me for a moment, his face echoing the look on mine. But then Kanda became angry, and he swore fiercely under his breath. "Damn Komui. He said he talked to you."

"Talked to me about what?"

Kanda gave me a strange look, but it passed as he sighed in resignation. He rolled onto his back and stared up at the ceiling, clearly uncomfortable with looking at me while he explained whatever it was Komui was supposed to have told me. "You're pregnant. But you've only had a vagina for a few days and it had never been touched before tonight. If Central were to get curious and do their own tests on you, they'd have discovered that and then we'd have been in a lot of trouble. In order to avoid that, we had to have sex as soon as possible after your vagina opened so that you wouldn't be a virgin anymore."

That was a lot of information to take in, but I at least now knew where he'd gotten the idea that he was taking my virginity. It made sense, and it certainly explained why he had taken me in that way, but it didn't do much for making me feel better.

"Anyway, I thought you already knew that, so I didn't bother talking about it beforehand. I thought you'd like it better if it was spontaneous." Kanda leaned in close and kissed my forehead. "I'm sorry I hurt you."

I was torn between letting out my anger and being touched by the concern and remorse Kanda was showing for me. Of course, being six months pregnant, my hormones decided for me. I began crying once again.

Kanda pulled me into a comforting hold, and I buried my face in his chest and clung to him while I cried. He kissed my temple and whispered soothing words until I calmed down enough to speak. "You didn't hurt me. Not in the way you're thinking, anyway. God, Yuu, I was so scared. I didn't know what was happening or why you had chosen to do that to me. And that just made me even more scared. I was more frightened of you than I had ever been before. Please, Yuu. Please promise that you won't do it again."

I was crying again by the time I was done, and I knew from the way Kanda had stiffened at my request that he was going to deny it. Vaginal sex was going to become like oral sex: it was going to be something we did because he liked it, and it didn't matter what my feelings towards it were.

But contrary to my expectations, Kanda actually explained what he was thinking instead of just saying no. "I'm sorry I scared you, Moyashi, but I won't agree to that. We have to do it at least once more. I'm positive that if you try it again, you'll like it. It'll be better now that you understand it."

I stared angrily at him before I decided that it wasn't worth arguing with him. It was a fight that I wasn't going to win. "Fine. Just get it over with."

Kanda stared at me as I rolled onto my back and splayed out, waiting for him to go ahead and take me. He was clearly doubting the sincerity of my agreement, but he decided to take advantage of the situation.

As Kanda knelt over me, his mouth went to work on my collarbone while his strong fingers began pinching and teasing my nipples. Despite my reluctance for what I knew was coming, it felt so good to be touched like that that I quickly dissolved into a moaning, writhing mess.

This time around, I wasn't distracted by the sensation of growing wet, and I remained so out of it that I wasn't aware of what Kanda was doing until after he had buried his shaft inside me. And as embarrassing as it was to admit to, he was right, I did like it. It was awkward at first, but it didn't take long for us to find a rhythm, and once we did, I was screaming louder than I'd ever screamed before. Every single one of his thrusts into my passage filled my body with so much pleasure that I couldn't keep it inside. The orgasm that followed was without a doubt the most intense orgasm I had ever had.

It wouldn't even be the most intense of that night though. Because Kanda had been proven right, and that meant that we were far from done with the sex that evening. He rode me until I passed out from exhaustion and pleasure, having been through so many mind blowing orgasms that I had lost my voice and my limbs felt like limp noodles.


	11. Chapter 11

I felt really bad for what had happened with the Moyashi that night. Yes, it was technically all Komui's fault for saying that he'd talked to Allen when he hadn't, but I still felt like crap over my role in it.

It literally felt like I had raped my husband.

The Moyashi was so radiant and beautiful, and at six months pregnant, he was exactly what I pictured as the perfect sexual partner. It hurt me that I had hurt him. And that was new. We'd been together for years and I had never before cared about whether or not I was hurting him; in fact, we had even occasionally had sex that was so rough we were deliberately trying to hurt each other. It was weird that I suddenly felt bad for causing him pain. I knew that some of that concern was because he was pregnant, which made him more fragile, and some came from the fact that we were married now, which, despite what he might have said, did mean that he belonged to me, but I was at a loss as to where the rest of it came from. I didn't think that I loved the Moyashi _that_ much.

And it definitely didn't help that he was so forgiving of the whole thing. He didn't get scared of me or mad at me; he continued to climb in bed with me every night, smiling and laughing as he joked about being fat and taking up all of the bed space.

After about a week of keeping my feelings to myself, I had had enough of driving myself crazy with wondering what was going on in the Moyashi's head. The final straw came one night when he curled up in bed beside me with a book. The normalness of the action was so disturbing that I had to confront him. "Why aren't you mad at me?"

"Hmm?" He questioned me calmly and without moving his head from my shoulder. "Why would I be mad at you?"

The innocence in his voice bothered me. He truly had no clue what I was talking about, and that was not acceptable when guilt had been eating me alive for the last week. "Because of what happened the other night. I basically raped you, yet you're acting like nothing happened. Why aren't you mad at me for what I did?"

There was a tense moment of silence while I waited for the Moyashi to react. I was expecting him to finally blow up at me, so it was a bit anticlimactic when all he did was sigh. "Oh. That."

Allen sighed again, much more wearily this time, and put his book aside. When he turned back to me, he took my hand in his and squeezed it tightly; it was his way of making sure that I wouldn't run away before he finished talking. "I _am_ mad at you over what happened that night, but not about _that_. You'd been told that I knew it was coming. It's not your fault that that wasn't actually the case."

He paused to wince, moving my hand to his belly so that I could feel our child kicking. It was a wonderful feeling, but it did little to put my mind at ease. Allen then placed his free hand on my cheek and guided me into looking him in the eyes. "No, what upsets me is that you didn't even notice that I was trying to stop you. I think I even bit you at one point, but all trying to make you stop did was spur you on. And that can't happen again. I'm pregnant. If I'm trying to stop the sex, it's because it's painful or something's wrong. You need to be paying enough attention to be able to hear me when I ask you to back off."

I didn't know how to respond to that. Not only was it not what I thought he would say, but it was an incredibly valid point. I truly should have been listening to him during sex.

"It's kind of fun to see you feeling guilty over this, Yuu." The Moyashi's serious look briefly contorted into a smirk with those words, but then he let out a wistful sigh and went back to being serious. "There have been so many times that I've wished to hear you express regret for the way you've treated me, and I thought I'd die before that happened. Yet here we are, and you've actually said out loud that you feel like you raped me. I both love and hate that you feel bad. It means so much to me that you're actually taking our marriage seriously. You've grown so much in the last three years."

I made a face at the sideways compliment, but Allen didn't give me the chance to object to the sentimental garbage he was spewing. He leaned in and kissed me before I got a single syllable out. "I'm six months pregnant with your child, Yuu. I don't like being mad at you, and I don't like being the reason you feel bad. So, let's make a deal: apologize for not listening to me and promise to do better in the future, and I'll forgive you for raping me."

"Couldn't you have said that without the sappy speech?"

He smirked at me again. "Nope."

"You're such a dork, Baka Moyashi." I rolled my eyes, loving the way he pouted at the comment.

Pulling his hand off my cheek, I placed it on his baby bump with our other hands. Then I closed my eyes and leaned in so that our foreheads were touching. "As much as I hate to admit it, you do have a point. Things have changed in the last month, and I do need to get better at listening to your needs. After all, if I had stopped when you asked me to, I wouldn't be feeling like I raped you. So yes, I am honestly sorry that I didn't listen, and I promise that I will try to be more aware in the future. The last thing I want is to hurt you again."

The silence that followed was filled with a few sniffles that I knew were the Moyashi trying to keep himself from crying. He threw his arms around me and pulled us even closer together than we already were. It was annoying, but at the same time, if I had known that sharing a bed would make him more affectionate, I'd have started doing it long before we learned about the baby.

Because of our closeness, I felt the lone tear roll down Allen's cheek. "Thank you, Yuu."

He paused for a moment and then said something that he hadn't said before. "I love you."

I had known for a long time that he felt that way about me, but actually hearing him say those three words like that felt really good. "I love you too, Allen."

.x.x.

July and August were hell for Allen. The seventh and eighth months of his pregnancy were accompanied by record-breaking heat. Being pregnant made Allen especially sensitive to the temperature, and he could often be found just reclining against the stone walls in the cooler lower levels of headquarters.

He had even taken to wearing sundresses; the need to cool down from the torturous heat took precedence over his modesty and male pride. Months later, he would be mortified by the memory of the way the thin fabrics clung to his sweat-soaked body. The flimsy dresses showed off every inch of his growing belly, and left very little of his budding bust to the imagination: the entire Order now knew that he had breasts. But the others were almost as miserable as he was, so they ignored his immodest state; in fact, most were jealous of his pregnancy, wishing that they too had a legitimate reason to be wearing next to nothing.

During all this, Allen had a real problem with staying hydrated. He drank constantly to keep himself cool and replace what he was sweating out, but the baby had found his bladder, and she loved to kick it at the most inopportune moments. It felt like he spent all his time in the bathroom.

The biggest relief for Allen was that the baby was still craving her father's favorite foods. Soba practically saved his life during the heatwave. He couldn't eat cooked foods, not without feeling like he was boiling alive, and that left him constantly hungry. But the cold Japanese noodles were a godsend. They filled him up and cooled him off at the same time. And the best part was that they made the baby happy. She actually left his bladder alone after he fed her soba.

Kanda couldn't stand the heatwave for completely different reasons from everyone else. He actually didn't mind the temperature, his artificial body protected from such things. But then there was Allen...

His husband was literally glowing with the life growing inside him. His constantly sweat-soaked skin glistened, and the droplets pooled in his growing cleavage, which was left exposed by the low cut dresses he had taken a liking to wearing. And it all hit Kanda straight in his pregnancy fetish.

He wore his exorcist jacket tied around his waist, not to avoid the heat like everyone thought, but to hide the fact that he was almost constantly erect when he was around Allen. There were times, especially after sitting and enjoying a meal with his Moyashi, that he actually couldn't stand up because his pants were too tight. In times like that, he had to send Allen away in order to get his body to calm down. The pregnancy making the Moyashi like soba did a number on his libido.

The torture was totally worth it though. Because when Allen wasn't complaining about the heat, he was complaining about being horny. And the Moyashi having an increased sex drive was the icing on the cake for Kanda.

Their encounters were always brief, it was too damn hot for Allen to tolerate anything other than a quickie, but that just meant they could do it several times a day. If either of the young men were in the habit of bragging about their sexual prowess, like a certain redhead was, the entire Order would have known that they had sex as often as five times a day, every day.

But Allen especially was too reserved for that. He was mortified by the pregnancy hormones affecting his libido. Not just because they were making him horny, but by the way in which they did it. He didn't just want Kanda: he _needed_ Kanda's cock inside his vagina. And that was beyond humiliating for someone who still thought of himself as male.

If Allen's relief came in the form of cold noodles, Kanda's came in the form of missions. Being continuously aroused was stressful on his body. And it wasn't good sex either. Between the oppressive heat, the raw need, and Allen's constantly growing belly, it often felt more like their awkward first time than like they'd been together for years. The occasional day or two away from headquarters (Komui refused to send him on longer missions after Allen's breakdown) was just what the samurai needed to relax and recover between rounds.

Then September came. And with it: the end of the heatwave. But as the air and the people cooled down, Allen only grew more miserable. Now that he was no longer drowning in his own sweat, he was able to take stock of just how much his body had changed. And it was a good thing that he was desperately in love with his unborn baby, because otherwise those changes would have made him want to kill himself.

His pregnant belly was littered with stretch marks. They snaked across the surface of the mound, which was now so large that he looked due, despite still having five weeks of his pregnancy left to go. The sheer size of his belly made it hard to believe that he was once in danger of losing his baby from being underweight.

Allen's belly wasn't the only part of his body that had put on weight. His ass was round and full, his thighs were plump, and his hips had spread to a decent child-bearing width. Even his face had taken on a rounder shape from all the water he was retaining.

His breasts had finally stopped growing, causing Lenalee to attack him with a tape measure. The Chinese woman then spent the rest of the week complaining that his were bigger than hers. Her behavior annoyed him, but not nearly as much as the mounds that hung from his chest and perched on his belly did. Allen prayed that Komui was wrong and the obnoxious things would go away once they'd served their purpose.

In the meantime, he would just have to ignore the fact that he now looked like a woman. Once he had gotten over the initial shock of seeing himself like that, Allen was able to see that there was no point in freaking out over the changes to his body until after the baby was born; with five weeks of his pregnancy left, things were only going to get worse. He just wished that he was still unaware of his body's changes.

There was, however, one change that he definitely did not mind. For the first time in his life, Allen was bigger than Kanda. It was an even more enjoyable change given that he had been told that the pregnancy hormones would shrink his dick; having it grow was a pleasant surprise. He occasionally teased Kanda about being small, but the samurai really didn't mind; he was just glad that there was an aspect of his pregnancy that the Moyashi actually enjoyed.

When Lenalee had recovered from her griping, she began dragging Allen to town every chance she got. Now that her heavily pregnant friend actually looked like a woman, it was safe to take him shopping. Allen was not exactly thrilled with being out in public in his current state, but shopping for things for his daughter made it worth it. They bought toys and clothes, and finally furnished the nursery, which had been sitting empty for the last three months.

Everything was now ready for the baby's arrival. All that was left was for her to actually come into their lives.


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: Sorry this is a little late. Yesterday was crazy and I didn't have a chance to get online. Anyway, it's time for the baby to come!

.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.

It was the twelfth of October. My due date. I looked and felt massive. The baby had dropped and I could barely walk ten feet on my own anymore, the strain of having my baby's head lodged in my pelvis made any movement nearly impossible. My back hurt, my feet hurt, I was barely sleeping. As scared as I was of childbirth, I was _beyond_ ready for the baby to come.

But she didn't.

Komui tried to comfort me by telling me that babies are rarely born on their due dates, but I didn't care. I just wanted her out of me.

Another week passed and I still hadn't gotten that wish. But what happened next almost made me wish that I hadn't made that wish in the first place.

It started with a backache. A twinge in my lower back that made moving and sitting up even harder than they already were. It tortured me all through lunch, so I escaped to my room the first chance I got. Maybe taking a nap would ease the pain.

It wasn't until I had collapsed on my side on the mattress that I realized that Kanda had followed me. But that made perfect sense; with how close I was to the end of my pregnancy, my husband barely let me out of his sight; between him and my friends, I had not been alone at all in the last three weeks; they even followed me into the bathroom. Yuu brushed my hair out of my face and kissed my forehead. "You alright, Moyashi?"

I shook my head as I awkwardly rubbed at my lower back; the concern in his eyes made it impossible to lie to him. "My back hurts. Carrying your baby has been murder on my muscles."

Kanda laughed and kissed my forehead again. Then he moved to where I couldn't see him. I felt his hands on my waistband, but before I could question him, he had pulled my pants down to my knees. "Bakanda! What are you-?"

I cut off with a moan as Kanda's strong fingers pushed up my shirt and began massaging the bare skin of my lower back. The more he worked, the more I moaned. It just felt so good.

I got lost in the wonderful feeling and let out a whine of protest when Kanda stopped to guide me onto my hands and knees. He laughed as he pulled my pants the rest of the way off when I got tangled in them, but otherwise he didn't make a sound.

My complaint about him stopping cut off when I once again felt him rubbing my back. He had climbed on the bed and knelt between my spread legs to get a better angle. But what I hadn't noticed yet was that his pants had joined mine on the floor.

The change of position made the back rub even better, and I didn't notice or care when his hands began to drift lower. We stayed like that for a while, his hands shifting between rubbing my back and caressing my ass. The tension in my muscles eased and I felt myself growing aroused.

Which is why I didn't protest the intrusion of his right index finger into my hole.

Kanda continued to rub my back with his left hand as he stretched me. It took longer than usual to prepare my hole, but that wasn't surprising; Kanda hadn't touched me like that in three months. Ever since my body had changed, we had had sex vaginally. So even though it hurt, the part of me that wanted to be male was ecstatic at the thought of being taken anally again.

I cried out in pain when Kanda thrust his length into me, ignoring the trickle of fluid from my vagina. I thought it was just the usual wetness that accompanied sex; it never even crossed my mind that it could be my water breaking.

My back was still on fire, my ass hurt, and the tightness and heaviness of my overdue belly was really weighing on me from the position I was in, but I ignored all of that discomfort in favor of focusing on sex with Kanda. I couldn't tell if I was crying out in pain or pleasure as I rocked my hips with his thrusts, and apparently, he couldn't either because he never faltered in his rhythm.

I came the first time he hit my prostate. The high of orgasm faded quickly though as a new pain seared through my body. There was something stretching my vagina from the inside.

I screamed as my belly suddenly contracted, giving in to what my body wanted me to do: push. The pressure in my vagina peaked as whatever was inside it stretched it wide and popped out. There was a sense of relief, even though I could tell that whatever it was wasn't even halfway out.

That was when my hormone riddled brain finally caught up with my senses. The thing sticking halfway out of me was my baby. I was giving birth. In the middle of sex.

Another contraction hit and I fought against the urge to push. As much as it hurt and as much as I wanted my baby out of me, I needed Kanda's help. I couldn't give birth while he was riding me.

It took a few tries, but I managed to regain control of my voice enough to tell Kanda to stop. Fortunately, after the incident a few months earlier, he had gotten a lot better at listening to me during sex. He pulled out of me just a few seconds later when he realized that I was in pain. The confused look on his face would have been precious if I weren't in such complete agony.

I screamed with the next contraction, bearing down with the urge to push. The baby moved, but only a little. I heard Kanda speak, but the pain roaring in my ears made it hard to hear. "Moyashi? Allen? What's wrong?"

"...The ... the baby's ... coming..."

"The baby's coming?" The way he just stood there stupidly made me want to hit him, but I couldn't move from my current position. However, he quickly snapped out of it and moved to pull his pants on. "We need to get you to the infirmary."

"There's no time. She's coming too fast." As if on cue, my words were followed by the strongest contraction yet.

I screamed and pushed with it, feeling my baby's shoulders stretch me open even wider than I already was. I leaned backwards, trying to spread my legs as much as I could in my awkward kneeling position. Kanda's hands were immediately on my hips, supporting me as I bore down. It hurt so badly, but then the pain was gone. The rest of the baby slid right out of me once her shoulders had come out.

I vaguely registered that Kanda had let go of me, and I could only hope that he was checking on our baby. I wanted to do it myself, but my body was so tense that I couldn't move.

I panted heavily as I tried to force my muscles to relax. My thoughts were scrambled, and only one thing surfaced: the time on the clock when I happened to glance at it. It had only been fifteen minutes since we had returned from lunch.

.x.x.

I had noticed that Allen looked uncomfortable when he left the cafeteria, but I didn't think much of it at the time. He was overdue, it was normal for him to be experiencing discomfort, so I wrote it off; I'd go check on him when I was done with my own lunch. Besides, if I had asked, he wouldn't have appreciated my concern. All my presence did lately was remind him that he was more female than male, and that irritated him. I kind of liked that the people in town thought we were sisters, but I understood where he was coming from.

Apparently, I actually should have been worried about him.

I knocked on the door to his suite and patiently waited for it to be answered. I could hear Allen and Kanda in the bedroom, and therefore knew they were there, so I just had to wait for one of them to get up. Only instead of getting a response from them, the next thing I heard was an agonizing scream.

Figuring out for myself that Allen was in labor and that the screeching was because of a contraction, I decided that privacy no longer mattered and let myself in; it wasn't much of a stretch to assume that they would need help getting to the infirmary. The scream faded by the time I reached the bedroom, but when I stepped inside, what I saw completely surprised me.

Allen was kneeling on the bed with his pants off, coated in sweat and looking like he was in a lot of pain. Kanda was standing behind him, picking something covered in gross red splotches up from between Allen's legs. The expression of shock on the samurai's face was probably identical to my own. Allen had just given birth.

I approached them quickly, hundreds of questions rattling through my head. It hadn't been that long since lunch, had I missed the signs? Had Allen been in labor the whole time and I just hadn't noticed? "What happened?"

"What the fuck do you _think_ just happened, Lenalee?!" The sarcastic response was almost exactly what I expected to get in the situation, except that Allen was the one saying it. His anger made the words especially harsh, but given what I was looking at, he had every right to be swearing like that. "I just gave birth! You two need to snap out of whatever fucking fog you're stuck in, give me my baby, and get us down to the fucking infirmary as soon as fucking possible!"

I immediately sprang into action. Allen was right; my questions could wait. Besides, Kanda was looking like he was not mentally present and could faint at any moment. It was not an expression I would have ever expected to see on the samurai's face, but there wasn't time to dwell on that. Allen needed help, and I was clearly the only one of us who was able to give it.

Taking the squirming baby from Kanda, and trying not to gag at how gross the miracle of life was, I carefully maneuvered her between Allen's legs and placed her on the blankets below his chest; in his current position, he would have gotten tangled in the umbilical cord if I had tried to move him first. The white haired boy began crying the moment he laid eyes on his daughter. It was a relieving change; the angry glare he'd been giving me before that was quite unnerving.

While Allen babbled in baby talk at the little girl, who he was calling Erika, I helped him move, shifting his weight off his hands and freeing them so that he could finally hold the baby. He whimpered in pain the whole time, but between the two of us, we managed to get him into a seated position. When I placed the newborn in his arms, his tears turned to full on sobs.

I kissed Allen's forehead and told him that he was amazing, and that snapped Kanda back into the present. It wasn't exactly intentional, but it was certainly effective. I instructed Kanda to carry Allen to the infirmary while I ran ahead to warn the nurses they were coming.


	13. Chapter 13

Twenty minutes later, baby Erika had been cleaned up, fed, and was snuggled contently in her mother's arms. She was gorgeous; with Kanda's navy hair and Allen's silver eyes, she was the perfect blend of the two of them. And even though she was only a newborn, it was already obvious that she would be turning heads when she was older.

Allen was reclining against the pillows on an infirmary bed, grinning like a madman whenever he looked at his baby, and Kanda sat beside him, arms wrapped around his Moyashi and wearing a happy smile that was quite out of character for him. Lenalee sat in the chair next to the bed, and she and Allen laughed and cooed as they fawned over the newborn in his arms.

The joyous mood was brought to an abrupt halt when Komui and the head nurse came into the room. The matron turned a fierce scowl on Allen and immediately began lecturing him for not coming to the infirmary as soon as he went into labor. "Why the hell didn't you tell anyone that you were having contractions?"

He met her scowl with a level stare that would have been much more effective if he didn't look so tired. "I only had four contractions. _Four_. Her head came out with the first one, and the rest of her came out with the last one. The whole thing took all of two minutes."

While his explanation was reasonable, it did nothing to appease the matron and she continued to glower at him. "You were probably ignoring the signs. Contractions often feel more like a backache. You were probably in labor all day and weren't paying enough attention."

That made Allen mad. "First of all: no one ever told me that, so how was I supposed to know? And second: even knowing that my backache was part of my labor only adds like half an hour to the total time. The pain started during lunch and the birth was over fifteen minutes after we left the cafeteria. Like I keep trying to tell you, she simply came out too fast for me to do anything about it."

The nurse then turned her scowl on Lenalee, hoping the other woman could talk some sense into the stubborn man, but the Chinese girl just shrugged and supported her friend. "I was with them through the whole meal. Allen showed absolutely no signs of being in labor."

Komui cleared his throat before anyone could say anything more and turn what was so far a civil discussion into an argument. " _Moving on_ , I'm sure you are all anxiously waiting to hear the results of the tests we did on the baby."

"Erika." Allen scowled at the Supervisor, offended by the nonchalant way the Chinese man was talking about his daughter. "Her name is Erika. Use it."

Komui laughed awkwardly and cleared his throat again. Allen may have been exhausted from childbirth, but that didn't mean that the young man was any less dangerous than he usually was. "Right. Sorry. Anyway, Erika is perfectly healthy. She's a little overweight, but that's because she was overdue, so it's nothing to worry about. We were concerned about the birthmark on her shoulder, but-"

"What birthmark?" The panic in Allen's voice was clear as he cut off Komui's explanation and turned his focus on the baby in his arms. He carefully freed his right hand and pulled away the blankets that were wrapped around his little girl. As soon as her body was exposed, his eyes went to her left shoulder where there was just a touch of malformed red flesh peeking out from under her onesie. "Oh."

Allen didn't have to see any more to know what was going on. He wrapped Erika back up with a sigh and held her closer to his chest. Turning his attention back to Komui, he cocked his head at the Chinese man. "Why were you worried about her parasitic Innocence?"

The sincere confusion in the young exorcist's voice and the puzzled look on his face almost made Komui laugh. "Because we didn't know that that's what it was. But you recognized it right away and you didn't even look properly."

"I didn't have to." At the look the others gave him, Allen sighed and explained. "I've had mine for as long as I can remember, it was obvious that that's what her birthmark is."

After a moment of silence, Lenalee placed her hand on her friend's shoulder. He was far too calm about this whole situation and that was bothering her. "And you're ok with that?"

Allen just shrugged off the question. "Not really. But we've known from the beginning that Eri was going to be an accommodator, so there's no point in freaking out over it now."

The comment earned him a flicked ear from Kanda. "Baka Moyashi. Stop trying to be noble and just say that you wish Eri didn't have Innocence."

Pouting at his husband, Allen sighed and shook his head, his disheveled white hair falling into his face. "But that's not true. It's because she has Innocence that I know we get to keep her. If she weren't an accommodator, Central would have tried to take her from us. And it's because of _my_ Innocence that we even have her in the first place. I may wish that she doesn't have to grow up to be an exorcist, but I definitely don't wish that she didn't have Innocence."

Kanda rolled his eyes at the sentimental speech, unwilling to admit that the other actually made a lot of sense. "Baka. Just-"

A loud crash from the hall interrupted him, and everyone turned to the door just as Lavi burst into the room. His red hair was a mess and he was panting for breath as he skidded to a stop at the foot of Allen's bed. He was grinning like a lunatic and looked like he was about to explode with excitement. "I heard you had the baby! Where is she? I can't wait to meet her!"

Ignoring the redhead while he struggled to breathe after his wild sprint across headquarters, Allen smiled at Komui. "Is there anything else?"

The supervisor laughed and shook his head as he headed towards the door. "It's nothing that can't wait until later. You kids have fun with the baby."

The matron followed his lead, and the four friends were left alone. Lavi had calmed down by that point and he moved closer, reaching out to stroke Erika's cheek. "You actually did it. You actually had a baby."

The wild-eyed look on his face made the others laugh. Allen smiled and brushed his finger along Erika's nose, making the little girl yawn. "This is Erika. She's about an hour old."

Lavi and Lenalee oohed at the adorable way the baby's face scrunched up with her yawn. Inwardly, he felt the same warmth when watching his daughter, but Kanda scoffed at the pair, earning himself an elbow in the ribs from Allen. "Stop being so uptight, Yuu. It's ok to admit that you think your baby is beautiful."

Lavi wanted to laugh at the pair, but after the last four months of watching them be a married couple, teasing them over their relationship wasn't fun anymore. All laughing at them now would do would make them mad at him, and he did not want to risk having Allen kick him out of the room. So he ignored his gut reaction and turned his focus on Erika.

But when the redhead reached for the baby and moved to take her from Allen, the young man hissed and pulled her away. "What do you think you're doing?"

Lavi blinked at the hostility in the question, wondering what he'd done to upset the new mother. "Holding the baby?"

The look on his face made Kanda snicker and Lenalee laugh. Taking pity on him, the Chinese woman explained as gently as she could. "That's not allowed yet. It's still Allen's turn."

Lavi frowned in disappointment. "And when will it be someone else's turn?"

Kanda snickered again. "At this rate? A week from Tuesday." When Allen made a face at the joke, the samurai rolled his eyes at his husband. "She's my baby too, you know. I should be allowed to hold her."

Allen continued to pout, but when Kanda pressed once more, he actually relinquished his hold on the baby, moving Erika into her father's arms. He didn't want to let go of her, but he knew that Kanda was right.

Catching the look on Kanda's face when the baby was settled into his arms, Lenalee sprang from her chair and dragged Lavi from the room before he could tease the samurai, like he was inevitably going to do if he were allowed to stay. It was time for the new parents to have some privacy.

Allen had also caught that Kanda was trying to conceal his true feelings in front of their friends. He smiled cheekily at his husband when he heard Lenalee close the door. "They're gone. You can cry now."

The comment was rewarded with a growl and a glare, but the restrained tears did fall; Kanda was just too happy to hold them in. The baby that had been growing inside his Moyashi was now in his arms, and she was every bit as perfect as he had hoped she would be.

Allen sighed contentedly and leaned his head against the samurai's shoulder, his gaze firmly fixed on their newborn baby. Everything he'd been through in the last several months was all for her, and now that she was actually in their lives, he could say that it was worth it. The next few months were going to be hard, but if the first hour of her life was any indication, Erika was going to be a well behaved child.

While Allen was lost in thoughts of raising their daughter, Kanda was staring not at the baby, but at the head of white hair that was resting on his shoulder. The Moyashi was gorgeous both physically and spiritually, even if he didn't look it after the strain of childbirth. "So, when are you going to let me get you pregnant again?"

The sincere question made Allen snort. "Are you capable of thinking about something other than sex?"

The samurai blinked at the comment. It was not the outright refusal that he had expected. "I'm being serious, Allen."

Allen's heavy sigh turned into a yawn. "I know. But it's only been an hour since I gave birth. I don't want to even think about having another baby right now. Ask again in a couple months."

.x.x.

The next few weeks were hard. Taking care of Erika was a hell of a lot easier back when she was still inside me. Instead of getting no sleep because I was big and uncomfortable, I was getting no sleep because my infant daughter was completely helpless and always needed something.

Breastfeeding was by far the worst part of having a baby. While I loved having Erika that close to me, all nursing her did was draw attention to my breasts. Those things were awful and, outside of sex, I hated them with every fiber of my being. And it was all because the people at the Order had no boundaries. They all thought that it was perfectly acceptable to ask how my milk was flowing or if I was making sure that my nipples weren't drying out or if my breasts hurt. It was mortifying and annoying; I was a man, I did not want _anyone_ to be talking about my breasts. Even if I were a woman, my breasts should not have been an acceptable topic of conversation. The whole thing was far too private and personal.

But after a month, I had finally figured out how to make them leave me alone. All I had to do was turn to my husband, who was almost always at my side, and say, "Yuu, make them shut up." Whoever was bothering me would be gone before Kanda could so much as glare at them. It was mean, but unlike politely asking them to stop, it actually worked.

Kanda was way more supportive than everyone said he'd be. Back when I was pregnant, everyone had said that he'd make himself scarce when it came time to take care of our baby; a few had even insisted that I wouldn't even be able to get him to hold her. But not only did Yuu hold the baby when she was being quiet and adorable, he held her when she was crying too. He even changed her diapers and helped bathe her.

I was not surprised that Yuu was putting so much effort into being a good father and husband. Back when we had first learned of my pregnancy, I had agreed with the others, but after being married to Kanda for several months, I knew that he wasn't capable of being anything other than helpful and supportive towards people that he loved.

There was only one thing about his behavior that surprised me: whenever Yuu was holding Erika in his arms, he was talking to her. In Japanese.

With the flawless way he spoke English, his lack of interest in Japanese things, and the fact that his body was the result of a science experiment, I was under the impression that Kanda didn't actually know his native language. (Aside from a few random words and insults, that is.) I was clearly wrong about that.

I was far from fluent, but I knew quite a bit of Japanese from my travels with Master Cross. It was a beautiful language, but it was even more beautiful hearing my husband speak it to our infant daughter. I could sit and listen to him talk for hours, if it weren't for the fact that I didn't actually have the time to do that.

I will never forget the look on Yuu's face the first time I spoke to him in Japanese. He had just finished talking Eri to sleep, and I had popped into the room to ask him a question. It slipped out in Japanese, and he just stared speechlessly at me. After what had happened when we learned I was pregnant, Kanda frequently told me he loved me, but that was the first time it had ever shown on his face. It was priceless and it made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. I truly was the love of my husband's life.

Unsurprisingly, he pounced on me the moment he collected himself. The sex we had that afternoon was more tender and passionate than it had ever been before.

.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.

A/N: No updates next week. I'm also moving my posting day from Thursday to Friday. You'll have to wait till 3/09 for Chapter 14.


	14. Chapter 14

~Two and a Half Years Later~

There was no denying that Erika was Yuu's child. I wasn't the only one who saw it that way, but it was really only those few who were close to him - namely, Teidoll and Marie - that agreed with me. Most everyone else insisted that aside from her hair color, which proved that she was biologically his, she was a miniature version of me. And while it was true that her smile and vibrant facial expressions came from me, everything else came from Yuu. Her personality was everything I loved about my husband. She was simultaneously obedient and the most stubborn person in the world. Quiet and reserved, yet when you got her out of her shell, she was talkative and sweet.

My daughter was perfect. In every possible way. Even if she was a little ball of energy that never stopped moving. Keeping up with her was a full time job. But it was a job I didn't mind. Every second that I got to spend with my child was precious.

It was just as wonderful watching her interact with her father. Erika was definitely daddy's little girl; she could get Kanda to do anything she wanted. Fortunately for my sanity, what she wanted was his undivided attention, and he was all too happy to give it to her. It was a common sight to see Erika sitting on Kanda's lap while she played with her toys. Yuu may have told me once that he only wanted our baby out of obligation to me, but that was no longer true. He loved our daughter every bit as much as I did.

Between being an exorcist and taking care of Erika, there wasn't time to focus on my body. I had things to do that were much more important than dwelling on the awkward fact that I was stuck halfway between male and female. I had breasts and a vagina, and that was just how it was. There was no time for self-pity. Besides, my husband remained loving and supportive - two words which were not used to describe Kanda Yuu prior to our marriage - and with the love of my life around to give me strength, I couldn't bring myself to care that I wasn't completely male anymore.

But when I got pregnant for the second time, all of that changed.

Yuu took the news much better than I did, but given that I'd known since I was pregnant with Erika that he wanted to get me pregnant again, that wasn't really surprising. However, while he was thrilled to have knocked me up, I definitely had mixed feelings towards it. If our second child was anything like her older sister, she was going to be amazing and I couldn't wait to meet her. On the other hand, now that I actually was pregnant again, I knew that it was not what I wanted to be doing.

With every day of my pregnancy that passed, my body became more female. And between being on maternity leave and having nothing to do but take care of Erika, I was painfully aware of that fact. And I hated it with every fiber of my being.

So I used everything that I possibly could to distract myself. It really wasn't hard to keep myself busy when I was responsible for a rather rambunctious toddler. But spending all of my time chasing after Erika backfired.

When I was six months pregnant, Komui and the doctors decided that I was pushing myself too much physically, and I was placed on bed rest. It was just a precaution, so it was only for a few hours a day, but they didn't trust me to monitor my time correctly by myself, so I was forced into spending that time in the infirmary with nurses watching my every move.

To make what felt like a prison sentence even worse, Erika wasn't allowed to keep me company. The doctors didn't want her to distract me from resting - which I had to admit was completely justified - so when Yuu was away on missions and couldn't watch her himself, she was taken to the library to have preschool with Emilia and Bookman. And I couldn't complain about that either, because she liked it and I knew that learning to read was good for her.

And that was why I currently had no choice but to sit here and let Lenalee paint my toenails. It was terribly embarrassing, and I couldn't tell if it was better or worse than the day before, when she'd taken advantage of my forced rest and shaved my legs. At least the nail polish wasn't pink.

I knew why she was doing it. I'd have to be stupid not to. Her motives were as clear as day given that my husband had been gone for the last three weeks and we hadn't been intimate in months. I knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that there would be a risqué piece of nightwear laid out on my bed when I returned to my room that night.

However, this went far beyond her primping me up for a night of steamy sex. Lenalee was trying to teach me how to be a woman.

She'd been doing it ever since my first period, which Komui had forced me into telling her I was having; it was definitely not my idea for anyone to know that _that_ was happening to me. But in retrospect, I truly did need her help in dealing with the day to day side of having girl parts, so I couldn't be too mad about it.

Lenalee's lessons used to be sporadic, only once or twice a month, and they were always on easy to handle topics - things that I knew I needed to learn. But that had changed last week. And it was all my fault. I had made the mistake of telling her, in a fit of hormone-induced sobbing, that my body was completely female. Ever since then, her lectures got far more frequent and intimate. I tried to protest, but whenever I did, she'd start calling me "Allie-chan" and threaten to tell Lavi that I didn't have a dick anymore.

So here I was, with shaved legs and intricately braided hair, sitting unwillingly while my best friend painted my toenails and lectured me about the pros and cons of getting my ears pierced. "You're wasting your time, you know. I'm seven months pregnant. I'm a blimp. There's no point in trying to make me look pretty."

Lenalee rolled her eyes. Without looking up from her work, she rubbed a few circles on my heavily swollen belly, making the baby shift inside me. "Look on the bright side: being pregnant means you're not having your period."

"That's not much of a silver lining." While I did appreciate that I was no longer spending five days a month bleeding, that did not make up for the downsides of being pregnant.

Her retort was bitter and full of discontent. "It's still better than having a period and knowing that you'll never get pregnant."

"Sorry."

She sighed heavily and finally put the god awful nail polish away. "No, I'm sorry. It's not your fault that my brother's psychotic. And my pain is nothing compared to yours. I would do practically anything to have a baby, but I can't even begin to imagine what it must be like for you. You're literally giving up being a man for your children."

"Lena, I-"

My attempt to change the subject was completely ignored. "At least you've got a great guy. Kanda's really something special. And to be supporting you while you're going through this... I'm envious of the relationship you two have. You're so comfortable with each other that you can even talk about personal things. It must be great to be with a guy who loves you so much that he doesn't care that you've changed genders."

Her wistful sigh made me frown, and before I knew what I was doing, I had said something out loud that I hadn't meant to tell her. "...Yuu doesn't know..."

The words earned me a slap to the back of the head. "What the hell, Allen! How can you not have told him that you're a girl?!"

"First of all, my body may be female, but I am _**not**_ a girl." I glowered at Lenalee, angry not only over her mistake but at the fact that no matter how often I corrected her, she continued to make it. "Second, Yuu's been gone since before that actually happened. The rest was easy. I told him that I didn't want sex because my pregnancy killed my libido, and he had no reason to suspect that I was lying."

I was slapped upside the head again. I glared at her, but being on bed rest meant that I couldn't fight back. "I can't tell him, Lena. I can't. This is life changing, and I have no clue how he's going to take it. What if he hates me? What if he-?"

This time I was slapped across the face. "Kanda's not going to leave you, Allen. He's your husband and he loves you. You have no choice. You have to tell him." Seeing that I was unconvinced, she tacked on, "Besides, he's been gone for the last three weeks. Given his pregnancy fetish and the fact that you're currently very pregnant with his child, he's going to be so turned on by you that he's probably not even going to notice."

I groaned and buried my face in my hands, once again wishing that I wasn't on bed rest so that I could get up and walk away; I hated it when my friends talked about my sex life. "That doesn't help, Lena."

She sighed and fell silent, but the quiet didn't last. "Alright, then think about it this way: when you two first started dating, Kanda thought you were a man. It has to be easier to tell your _husband_ that you're female than it was to tell your _boyfriend_ that you were a man with a vagina, right?"

"Maybe if that was actually how it happened." The words were grumbled under my breath, but Lenalee still heard them, forcing me to explain. "We didn't know that I had girl parts until after I got pregnant with Erika. Yuu was in bed with me the night my vagina opened."

I was slapped for the fourth time this conversation. Thankfully, I wasn't bruising like I did during my first pregnancy. "Would you knock that off?!"

The demand was answered by her flicking my ear. "Not until you stop being an idiot."

I blinked stupidly at my best friend. "How am I being an idiot?"

Lenalee sighed heavily and looked like she wanted to slap me again. "Allen. You dated Kanda for three years as a male. Then one day, out of the blue, he learns that you're a hermaphrodite and you're pregnant with his child. And his reaction to all this was to beg my brother to bend the rules and let him marry you. He is not going to care that you're female."

"What did you just say?" What I thought I heard had made my heart stop, yet I didn't believe that it was true; I must have heard her wrong.

Being my best friend, Lenalee knew exactly what it was that I was wanting her to clarify. She sat down on the edge of the bed and began rubbing my belly. "According to Komui, your marriage was all Kanda's idea."

I could only blink stupidly at her in response. Apparently, I _had_ heard her right. And that was strange. I had known that Kanda had married me because he wanted to marry me, but it was stunning to learn that he had wanted to marry me so much that he had actually asked Komui to do it.

Lenalee moved her hand from my belly to my shoulder and fixed me with a level stare. "Look, I know this is going to be hard for you, but you have to do it. Kanda's going to take the news just fine. And if he doesn't, just tell me and I'll kick his ass for you."

I laughed, knowing that Lenalee was definitely capable of hurting Kanda if she wanted to. I wasn't really in the mood for humor though, so the laughter faded quickly. "Thanks, Lena, but I don't think I can do this."

She frowned at me, disappointment written all over her face. After a very tense silence, she said something that scared me to the core. "Fine, then if you don't tell him tonight, _I'll_ tell him tomorrow. And you know _exactly_ what Kanda's going to do to you if he hears this from someone else."

I swallowed hard at the threat, but before I could even think of trying to talk her out of it, Lenalee had left the room. I moved to follow her, but the second I'd swung my feet off the bed, a nurse was standing in the doorway and yelling at me to get back in bed. This whole thing sucked.

.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.

A/N: I'm moving this story from a weekly posting schedule to a biweekly one. You'll see the next chapter in two weeks.


	15. Chapter 15

A/N: A note on pronouns: in this chapter, I switch from using "he" to "she" to describe Allen once Kanda knows that he's female, and it'll stay that way for the rest of the story.

.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.

Finally returning home from a long mission was made even better by the giggling toddler who threw herself into my arms the moment she spotted me. I didn't like being away from my family for so long, but knowing that they had missed me as much as I had missed them definitely made me feel better. The way Eri followed me around for the rest of the evening was adorable, and though I sometimes found her constant need for my attention annoying, it was at times like this that I was actually glad for her unconditional love for me.

I had gotten a lot of crap over the last couple years for the openly affectionate way I treated Erika. The idiots around the Order actually thought that I'd treat my daughter the same cold way I treated them. Though, if I'm being honest, if it weren't for the Moyashi, that's probably the type of parent I would have been; his kind and caring spirit had rubbed off on me over the years we'd been together. Plus, Erika was half Allen, and I couldn't say no to her any more than I could say it to him. I loved my daughter.

So when she demanded that I be the one to put her to bed that night, I grumbled and faked annoyance, but I did what she wanted. I knew that the Moyashi was worried about my inability to say no to Erika and the possibility that she would grow up to be quite spoiled, but there was a difference between loving her and giving her everything she wanted, and I knew where that line was. Tonight, that line was not giving in to her when she begged to sleep with me and Allen.

But I had ulterior motives for making my daughter sleep in her own bed. The Moyashi had told me that he had something he wanted to talk about once we were alone, and I was praying that it meant that he was ready for sex. Three weeks of no sex followed by a three week long mission had really taken their toll on me. My desire for my Moyashi's pregnant body was intense, and it killed me that his pregnancy had made him uninterested in doing anything sexual. I was beyond ready for that phase of his pregnancy to be done so that I could screw him into the mattress. And I knew that even though there was only a small chance that sex was actually what he wanted, it definitely wouldn't happen if Eri were to be in the bed with us.

So, despite her protests, I tucked Erika into her own bed. I didn't like having her pout at me, but by the time I was done with her bedtime story, she was out like a light, so I didn't have to endure it for long. I continued to sit by her bed until I was certain that she was asleep, loving how adorable she looked and wishing that she weren't growing up so fast. It had been three years since I first learned of her existence, and yet it felt more like it had only been three months. I still couldn't believe that I actually had a child; even now, that was a twist I couldn't believe my life had taken.

Once I was satisfied that Eri wouldn't be interrupting us for the rest of the night, I headed into our bedroom to finally find out what it was that Allen wanted to talk about.

My white haired husband was lounging on our bed in a very skimpy, red lace nightgown.

I could do nothing but stare at him in shock. We'd been together for six years, and I had seen him naked countless times, but it wasn't like Allen to put himself on display like that. It was even less like him to be wearing women's clothing.

Even though the Moyashi had basically become a woman when he got pregnant with Erika, he still insisted on acting and dressing like a man. Fortunately for him, Johnny was a great tailor who could make men's clothes not only fit his feminine figure, but look good on it as well. But despite the fact that Allen dressed like a man, his breasts and the curve of his hips gave him away as something in between.

And ever since he'd conceived our second child, his body had begun to change again. I pretended not to notice, because I knew it was a sensitive subject for him, but the fact that he was getting curvier and his voice was cracking was impossible to miss. It was hard to keep my silence, but the hardest part was dealing with the hormonal Moyashi. The more feminine Allen's body became, the more he tried to insist that he was still completely male. It caused a lot of problems. Especially whenever someone referred to him with female pronouns; the Moyashi had made more newcomers cry in the last six months than I had.

I didn't care that his body was changing. I wasn't gay because I liked men, I was gay because the person I happened to fall for was male. I loved the Moyashi because he was the Moyashi. It didn't matter to me that he now looked like a woman. Actually, between my pregnancy fetish and the knowledge that it was carrying my children that had made his body look so female, it wouldn't be much of a stretch to say that I was actually _more_ attracted to Allen as a woman than I was to him as a man.

The Moyashi looked drop dead gorgeous in that lingerie. And he'd hurt me if I ever said it out loud, but dressed like that, there was absolutely no thinking of him as anything other than female. There was nothing masculine about the way the lace clung to the obvious curves of his pregnant body, and with the way his long white hair was styled around his softer face, that was definitely a woman lying on our bed.

Allen sat up when I came into the room. Propping himself against the pillows, he nervously adjusted the straps of his nightgown before he worked up the nerve to look at me. "There's something that I have to tell you..."

I eyed him up and down critically, still wondering what the hell he was wearing that outfit for. "It better be that you're ready for sex, because wearing that while I can't touch you is just plain cruel."

The Moyashi swallowed hard, drawing my attention to the fact that his Adam's apple had shrunk significantly in the time I'd been gone. He turned bright red and began fiddling with the hem of his nightgown. "I- I'm not- ... I don't- ... My ... it's..."

It was painful listening to him stumble over his words. Whatever it was that he was trying to tell me was so embarrassing that he couldn't even talk properly, and I did _not_ like that he seemed to be scared of me; after three years of marriage, I thought he'd gotten over that. But before I could interrupt his stuttering, the Moyashi suddenly straightened up and looked me in the eyes. "I've been lying to you for the past two months."

"What?"

He blushed and looked away again. "My libido is the same as it's always been. I- I lied so that you wouldn't see me naked."

I blinked at him, trying to figure out what it was that he was trying to tell me. "You need to make a whole lot more sense than that, Moyashi."

Allen was silent for an uncomfortably long time before he suddenly blurted out, "My dick's gone."

No matter how much I tried, I couldn't make my mouth work. I just stood there gaping like a fish. Not that it mattered, I had no clue what I would have said had I managed to talk. The Moyashi's revelation had me completely stunned.

My lack of response made Allen start babbling. "I started withholding sex when I first noticed it was shrinking. I couldn't stand the thought of you learning that I was becoming less of a man. I had always planned to tell you once the changes stopped, but it just continued to get smaller until it was gone. I've been f-female for two weeks now."

I sat heavily down beside him, trying to wrap my head around what he had just told me. "Is that why you've been crying in the shower?"

He nodded and sniffled, clearly trying not to cry over this anymore. And in that moment, everything finally made sense. I couldn't help rolling my eyes. "Che. Baka Moyashi. You're such an idiot."

The woman beside me turned bright red. I knew that Allen would hurt me if she knew that I had already switched to using female pronouns to describe her, but I couldn't help it; now that I knew that her genitals matched the rest of her body, I couldn't think of her as anything other than a woman. "No, I'm not! You're-"

I cut her off with a kiss. "Did you really think that I would leave you over this?"

She blushed deeply and nodded in embarrassment. I rolled my eyes again as I slid my hand under the Moyashi's nightgown and placed it on her swollen belly. I definitely had a problem; just the feeling of her taut skin under my palm was enough to have me ready for sex. Doing my best to ignore my desires, I placed my forehead against Allen's and stared deeply into her silver eyes. "I was there the morning you discovered your vagina. And I was there when you delivered Erika. After all that, I don't understand how you could possibly think that I'd leave you for no longer having a penis. If none of that bothered me, why would this? It's nothing in comparison."

"Oh really?" Allen snorted and rolled her eyes at me. As I watched, she tugged her underwear off her hips and kicked them aside, glaring at me the entire time. "How about now?"

It was obvious from her words and actions that she thought actually seeing her would change my mind. And while it was disconcerting to see that there was absolutely no trace of anything male down there, all I could focus on was the fact that my pregnant spouse was one article of clothing closer to being naked.

In the time it took me to collect myself, Allen snapped and returned to crying. "Yeah. That's what I thought."

Before I could stop her, she pulled away from me and moved to climb off the bed. But in the process, her shin brushed against my erection. We both froze at the contact, me to bite back a moan and her to gape at me in shock. The Moyashi blinked at me, disbelief written all over her face. "How can you possibly be attracted to me like this?"

I could only laugh at her incredibly stupid question. "We covered this years ago, Baka Moyashi. You're pregnant with my child. No matter what you look like, I will always find you beautiful."

She just continued to blink at me. "But what about when I'm no longer pregnant? Are you just going to toss me aside once I have the baby?"

The question both hurt and confused me. "I didn't last time."

Allen's face lit up with understanding, but then she turned bright red in embarrassment and buried her face in her hands. "Oh my god. Did I really just say that to you? You've been pestering me for _years_ about having more kids. Why on earth did I think that this was going to be a problem for you?"

I pulled her hands away and kissed her gently. "Because you're confused and hormonal. But I've got a cure for that."

She pushed me away when I tried to kiss her again. "You think sex is the answer to everything."

I rolled my eyes at her. "It's been almost two months, Moyashi. And you just told me that you're been intentionally withholding sex. So, in this case, yes, I do think sex is the answer. You need to relax and stop thinking about this."

Allen didn't kiss me back when I kissed her again, but she didn't push me away either, so I took that as permission to continue. She may have been hesitant, but from all our years together, I knew that reluctance was not the same as refusal, especially given that the Moyashi was all but screaming in pleasure before I even got the rest of her clothes off.

I wanted to drag the sex and foreplay out, but it had been far too long and my Moyashi was far too erotic in her pregnant state, and I unfortunately reached my end much sooner than I would have liked. Allen was already a puddle of goo by that point though, so even if I had lasted longer, she would have never known that I had been intending to punish her for lying to me.

After finally ridding my body of all the sexual tension I'd been holding onto for the past several weeks, my mind cleared and I noticed some things about the dazed Moyashi that contradicted her earlier distress. Her breasts and belly heaved as she struggled to breathe and her once immaculate hair was disheveled, making her look quite irresistible, but what really caught my eye was that her legs were shaved and her nails were painted a bright blue. Those were two very female grooming habits, especially given how adamant the Moyashi was about still being male. And it didn't make any sense to me that she would do them.

When Allen returned to her senses, I ran my foot along her smooth lower leg to draw attention to it. "Are you sure you're really against being a woman? Shaving is a pretty girly habit for someone in your position."

The Moyashi let out an exasperated sigh and collapsed dramatically against the pillows. "I hate your sister."

It took a second to realize that she was talking about Lenalee. "Che. No, you don't. She's your best friend and has been for years. But out of curiosity, what is it that she did?"

She gestured at her shaved legs and rolled her eyes like the answer was obvious. "She's trying to turn me into a woman."

"Che. You _are_ a woman, Moyashi."

The face she made at me in response was priceless. I knew exactly what she meant by that look and I couldn't help rolling my eyes at her. "You've been a woman for a lot longer than the past two weeks. You've been a woman since I met you. Your body's just finally caught up with your brain."

The second I said the words, the Moyashi was punching me in the shoulder, just like I expected her to do. I caught her arm and pulled her into my lap. It was an awkward action given how pregnant she currently was, but the result was definitely worth it. "Look, Moyashi- Allen. I get that this is hard for you. And you're clearly in denial. It's going to take more than just a couple weeks for you to accept that you're not male anymore. I'm not going to push you. I'll support you and let you work through this at your own pace."

Allen was clearly torn between feeling touched by what I'd said and dislike over the idea of adjusting to being female. I tightened my hold on her and kissed the back of her neck. "I just need one answer from you before I drop this: do you regret it?" The look on her face said she didn't understand what I was asking, so I clarified. "If it meant you could go back to being male, would you undo the last three years and give up our daughters?"

The horror on her face was answer enough, but Allen still pushed away and shouted at me. "How can you even suggest such a thing?!"

"Shh. Calm down." I pulled her closer and kissed her forehead. "I just needed to know if I should be worried about Eri. But you clearly don't blame her, so-"

"Why would I blame Eri? She's perfect." The innocent confusion on Allen's face was every bit as adorable now that she was female as it was back when she was male. But the look faded as she figured out what I'd been trying to say. "I may hate what's happened to me, but even if carrying our babies is what made me this way, it's not their fault. I know better than to vent my frustration on our daughters. And as long as you keep your promise to stay with me, it's not your fault either, Bakanda. I love you too much to blame you."


	16. Chapter 16

A/N: Sorry this is late. This chapter did not want to get written. I'm not particularly happy with it, but at this point, I'm just glad it's done.

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I was woken the next morning by the feeling of someone climbing onto the bed between me and Kanda. The change in weight had me instantly alert, but the familiar whine that followed it put me at ease. "Daddyyy!"

Not yet ready to get up but unable to fall back asleep because my position was now uncomfortable on my pregnant body, I shifted around as best I could without letting the squirmy new occupant of my bed know that I was awake. Erika may have been focused on her father, but that would change in a heartbeat if she knew that I was already awake.

Kanda woke with a groan, and even though I couldn't see it, I knew he was fixing Eri with that fierce scowl of his that terrified the finders yet somehow never fazed her. "What do you want, Sprout?"

"Breakfast!" The cheerful way she shouted the word told me that she was wide awake and wouldn't be leaving us alone until she got what she wanted. Erika began bouncing up and down, moving closer to Kanda until she was actually on top of him. "I'm hungry!"

"Get off me, Sprout." The tone was angry, but I knew from the lack of swearing that Yuu wasn't actually upset. I felt him sit up, and her weight returned to the mattress, which meant that he had physically moved her off of his stomach. "You have to get dressed before I can take you downstairs."

Eri immediately climbed off the bed, giggling and screeching as she ran back to her own room. Kanda sighed as he got up, intentionally pulling the blankets off of me in the process. "You coming with us, Moyashi?"

I growled at him as I pulled the covers back over my head and curled into a ball. "I'm seven months pregnant and you haven't been home in three weeks. It's your turn to deal with her. I'm going back to sleep."

Yuu just laughed at my grouchiness towards being woken early. I heard drawers open and close as he got dressed, followed by some squealing from Eri's room as they fought over brushing her hair, before silence finally fell once more. I relaxed and rolled over to a more comfortable position, taking more than my fair share of the bed now that I was alone, but just as I was nodding off, the baby shifted inside me, ramming her knee painfully into my side. I grumbled and changed positions again, but this time I was rewarded with a kick to the bladder. I didn't want to get up, but now I had to pee so badly that I had no choice.

I made my way to the bathroom, scowling at the woman in the mirror as I passed it. She was not pretty in the slightest, and I could not for the life of me understand why everyone, my husband included, thought she was attractive. Despite Yuu's comforting words from the night before, she was still just a painful reminder of what I used to be and would never be again.

Forcing my thoughts away from my reflection, I set about getting ready for the day, as there was no point in trying to go back to sleep now that I was up. I undid the tangled mess of braids on top of my head, but I was too tired and indifferent to do anything other than run a brush through my hair; I knew I should tie it back if I didn't want Eri to mess with it, but that required too much effort for this early in the morning. Afterwards, I pulled out the first outfit I found in my dresser, dressing as quickly as I could so that I wouldn't have to see my female body naked.

I felt better once I was wearing real clothes instead of that skimpy nightgown, and I was finally able to push my insecurities away. Throwing on Kanda's jacket, as it fit far better than any of my own, I headed down to the cafeteria before my stomach could start grumbling; our suite may have been soundproofed, but everyone complained that the growling of my stomach could still be heard three floors down.

Kanda and Eri had just finished ordering when I arrived, and the finders behind them let me cut in line so I could join them; but that wasn't really anything new, as they always insisted that my pregnant condition trumped line etiquette. As I expected, Yuu chose to give me crap while we waited for our food. "I thought you were sleeping in, Moyashi."

"Not my idea, Bakanda. Apparently _both_ of your daughters wanted me up." In case he didn't get it, the baby kicked me so hard that I couldn't help but visibly wince.

While Yuu made me uncomfortable by rubbing my belly in a way that was just a little too sensual for our public location, Eri finally noticed me and tore her gaze away from watching Jerry prepare her food. She was just as picky as her father was, and she always watched its preparation like a hawk to make sure that it was cooked just the way she wanted it. But I was more important to her than food - at least until her parasitic Innocence kicked in - and that meant that she greeted me loudly and passionately, latching onto my leg and burying her face in my clothes. "Mommy! Good morning!"

I smiled down at her, trying and failing to pry her off me. "Good morning, Eri."

Her happy smile morphed into a triumphant grin. "I did what you told me! I woke Daddy and let you sleep!"

Not having the heart to tell her that she _had_ woken me, as she was so proud of herself, I smiled down at her and tousled her still bedhead tangled hair. "Good girl."

She beamed up at me, but before she could say anything, Jerry announced that our food was ready. We gathered our trays and took them to our table, Erika stubbornly insisting that she could carry her own, which she barely managed to do without spilling anything.

After getting Erika situated in her booster seat, Kanda raised an eyebrow at me as he sat down at his own plate. "Why are you wearing my coat?"

"Because I was cold."

He shook his head and rolled his eyes at me, clearly annoyed by both my half answer and by my talking with food in my mouth. "Then wear your own coat, Baka Moyashi."

I stuck my tongue out at him. "Doesn't fit. Besides, you can't go on missions without your jacket, so if I have it then you can't leave." I frowned down at my plates. "At least, not without saying goodbye first."

"Moyashi..." His amused chuckle faded to a serious stare. "If you really want me to stay home, just say so. You're far enough along that nobody would mind if I stopped going on missions for a while."

"I know. I'm not _that_ lonely yet..." I smiled reassuringly at him, but it fell as I rubbed at my swollen belly. "But maybe you could go on shorter missions? Like you did last time? Three weeks without you was way too long. Especially with-"

"I win!" Proving my point before I could make it, Erika shouted and began waving her empty plate in the air.

Taking the plate from her before she could drop it and break it, I pushed her bowl of oatmeal in front of her. "Not yet, Eri. You've still got more to eat. Go slower this time. It's not a competition."

While I sighed heavily and returned to my own food, Kanda cocked an eyebrow at me. "When did she start doing that?"

"Last week. Lavi thought it was funny that she was eating faster than I was, and now she intentionally tries to finish her food first." I rolled my eyes and stabbed at my eggs. "Anyway... between being pregnant, chasing that little monster around, and the doctors trying to keep me on bed rest, it would be nice if you were home a little more often. I feel bad about constantly pushing Eri off on our friends, and they teach her weird things."

Yuu laughed and we went back to eating. After a few minutes, a finder approached our table. He looked scared, but that wasn't really surprising given that being around my husband still terrified the finders. "The head nurse wants Allen to come to the infirmary for an examination."

My mouth was full, so I let Yuu answer for me. "Tell the matron that she'll be down as soon as she finishes breakfast."

The finder nodded and ran off, clearly trying to escape as soon as possible. I almost laughed, but then what Kanda had said hit me. He had referred to me with female pronouns, and that made my blood boil. "'She'?! What the hell, Bakanda?! I thought you were going to let me adjust to this at my own pace?!"

He just rolled his eyes at my anger before fixing me with a serious stare. "Che. That _is_ what I'm doing, Baka Moyashi. Part of that adjusting is that you're going to have to stop getting upset when people refer to you as a woman. Which means that you need someone around who's willing to keep calling you 'her' and 'she' no matter how much you yell at them."

I scowled at him. "I let Erika call me 'Mommy'. Isn't that enough?"

He rolled his eyes again. "That doesn't count. You'd let Eri call you anything she wants to. You're like Teidoll in that respect; even if she were to call you names, you'd think they were terms of endearment."

Unsure if that was supposed to be a compliment or an insult, my scowl deepened. "Don't compare me to your teacher. That's creepy."

"That doesn't make it any less true, Moyashi." Yuu seemed to enjoy that the comparison had made me uncomfortable. "Besides, you've got the finders so terrified of saying the wrong thing that they're all walking on eggshells around you, and that's _my_ thing. Got it?"

The offense in his voice would have made me laugh had I not been mortified by the realization that that finder had run off earlier because he was scared of _me_ and not my husband. I didn't want to agree to this, but I was too embarrassed to continue arguing, so I ignored the question and turned my attention back to my food. Yuu laughed, "You don't have to pout about it, Baka Moyashi," but he let the subject drop.

When breakfast was over, I headed down to the infirmary, unsurprisingly followed by my husband and child. The head nurse was busy, so I unfortunately had to wait until she was ready for me, but that just meant that I had time to wrangle Erika and brush her hair. She gave me no trouble at all, and by the time the nurse came out, her long navy hair was not only free of tangles, but it was tightly braided so that it would stay that way.

Kanda nudged my shoulder as he followed me into the examination room. "Moyashi, how-?"

Knowing exactly what he was going to ask, I laughed as I cut him off. "You're too much of a pushover. She's not going to listen to you until you figure out how to say no to her."

While he frowned at me, I climbed onto the bed and let the doctors and nurses examine me. It was completely routine by that point, so I ignored them and focused on Eri until they were done. My daughter was adorable, and it was precious watching her tell her father everything she'd learned in school while he was gone.

It made the time pass quickly, and before I realized it, the exam was done and the head nurse was dismissing me. "Well, Allen, it looks like everything's fine. You and your baby are in perfect health. If you promise to take it easy, we can take you off bed rest. Though I _am_ curious as to why that is, given how much stress your body was under just yesterday."

I was thrilled to be off bed rest, but then the rest of her words hit me and I blushed bright red. Kanda snickered, and I hurried to speak before he could say anything embarrassing. "It must be because Kanda's finally back after being gone for so long. I missed him."

The nurse smiled slightly at my romantic lie, but it fell quickly. "That doesn't explain the weeks _before_ he left."

This time Kanda laughed outright. "That's because she was withholding sex."

It took everything I had not to hit Yuu for that comment; I only managed to hold it in because Erika was in the room with us. "Bakanda! Don't say things like that!"

He just rolled his eyes at me. "Che. You've been on bed rest for six weeks, we have sex, and then you're suddenly all better. Are you really going to deny that there's a connection between the two?"

"That _was_ the plan! No one needs to know about what happens between us in private!"

I was going to say more, but the matron beat me to it. She shook her head sternly at me, and the look in her eyes said that she knew _exactly_ what we weren't saying out loud. "Allen, you should know by now that everything concerning your body is important - especially while you're pregnant. The fact that you were going against your body's needs and withholding sex is _incredibly_ relevant. If we had known that your physical stress was a reaction to becoming female, we would have been able to treat this situation better."

"Sorry," I whispered and shied away, quite terrified of her anger and praying she would drop the subject.

She did, but she continued to lecture me, this time about a subject she'd been lecturing me on for nearly three years. I did my best to not talk back, as I knew from experience that that would only make the lecture worse, but that was hard when I knew that there was no reason for her to be lecturing me like that. I knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that there had been zero warning signs before Erika was born, and it bothered me that the matron not only refused to believe me, but she seemed to believe that I had hidden my labor on purpose.

And when she told me that she expected me to come for _daily_ exams so that there wouldn't be a repeat of that this pregnancy, I nearly lost it. But fortunately, that was when Erika reached her limit for sitting still and announced that she needed to use the bathroom. The head nurse protested when I excused myself to take care of my daughter, but I ignored her and escaped before she could stop me.

Yuu thankfully kept his silence and didn't tease me for running away, but my gratitude died when he wouldn't let me take Eri into the men's restroom. I desperately wanted to fight him on that, but by that point, Erika was quite antsy, so I had to do what Kanda wanted if I didn't want her to have an accident. Fortunately the room was empty, so I didn't have to deal with anyone seeing me and teasing me for being in the women's bathroom, but it was still mortifying being in there.

I made sure to let Kanda have it afterwards, but he didn't seem to care that I was upset. In fact, he continued to make both me and Erika use the women's room whenever we had to use a public bathroom. I eventually got him to admit that it had nothing to do with making me accept being female, but while it felt good to hear that, it was a little worrying that he had become so protective of us that he was trying to keep us away from men.

I called him 'Komui', thinking the comparison would make him stop, but he just scoffed at me instead. "You better believe it. Any guy who gets within five feet of either of our daughters better have a damn good reason for it or he'll be dealing with Mugen."


	17. Chapter 17

A/N: Well, the story's finally winding down. Just the epilogue left after this. Hope you're still enjoying it.

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Cross Marian was less than thrilled to be back at headquarters. He had managed to sneak away after the whole fiasco with the Fourteenth Noah had been resolved and he hadn't been back since. It was five glorious years of freedom that had come to an abrupt end when he came across a new accommodator. Not wanting to train the brat himself, he had no choice but to escort the kid to headquarters.

Ditching the brat with Komui, Cross trudged to the dining hall. If he was going to be at headquarters, he could at least get some of Jerry's cooking out of the deal. Plus, the cafeteria was the most likely place for Allen to be, and the general definitely wanted to take some of his frustrations out on his idiot apprentice.

Allen was the very first person he saw when he walked through the doors, but Cross didn't know that. To him, the woman chatting with Jerry was just someone interesting and unexpected. Cross couldn't ever recall seeing a pregnant woman at headquarters before; the Order "encouraged" recruits to leave their families behind, so unless things had changed, this girl had gotten pregnant while she was working for the Order, and that was severely frowned upon. That, combined with her obvious physical beauty, meant that she had Cross' full attention.

Given that the exorcist jacket she wore was clearly not hers, as it was far too big on her petite frame, Cross could only conclude that she was the partner of one of the exorcists. It was obvious which one too, as the gold trimming on the coat meant that she was with a general, and there was only one general her age. Cross couldn't recall his name, but knowing that the Japanese kid was one of Teidoll's brats meant he didn't feel even remotely bad about that.

In the midst of deciding if he cared enough to approach her to find out who she was, the woman turned in his direction. Cross recognized her the second he saw the jagged red scar running down the left side of her face, but the way she started spluttering when she saw him made it even more obvious. Her voice may have been higher and more female than it was the last time he heard it, but to be _that_ flustered from just seeing him at a distance, that woman could only be Allen.

Seeing Cross unexpectedly like that made Allen want to scream and run away, but the size of her belly made running physically impossible. She could only stand rooted in the spot as she locked eyes with her former teacher. The look on his face made it clear that he knew exactly who she was, and that was mortifying. Cross was the one person who she was hoping would never see what she had turned into; he was going to be completely insufferable about it.

Getting over his initial shock, Cross could only laugh. Which he did loudly and uproariously. Allen Walker had never been the most masculine child, and Cross had long suspected that he played for the other team, so seeing him like this now was absolutely hilarious to the redhead. "What the hell happened to you?"

The question made Allen deadpan. "I got pregnant."

Cross snorted as he eyed her bulging middle. "I can see that. I meant-"

In no mood to deal with any of this, Allen quickly cut him off. "I know what you meant. And that's still the answer. I got pregnant and the new hormones in my system made me look like this."

As Allen's fears had anticipated, Cross knew exactly what the vague statement meant. "And by that you mean that you're actually female."

She blushed bright red, dropping her gaze to the floor and letting her hair fall in her eyes. The embarrassed reaction told Cross that his suspicions were true, and that made him laugh again. The pair stayed that way, Allen staring at the ground while her former teacher laughed uncontrollably at her, until the general's amusement over the situation wore off.

To Allen's surprise, it only took a few minutes for Cross to stop laughing, and even more surprising than that was that he actually chose to let his paternal side surface and express worry for her. "Tell me about this guy you're with. Is he treating you right?"

Allen may not have completely understood Cross' reasoning for asking about Kanda, but she was too thankful for the subject change to care. "Kanda's been very supportive of me through all this. We got married a few years ago, and he's definitely taking that whole 'for better or for worse' thing seriously. He's made it very clear that he doesn't care about the way my body's changed."

Cross opened his mouth to pry further, but his question was drowned out by a child's joyful screaming as a small girl ran past them and up to Jerry's counter. The sight of such a young child within the Order's walls was disturbing, so Cross quickly turned his focus back on Allen, only to find Allen glaring angrily at the little girl. "Erika! We've talked about this before! No running in the halls!"

Tears pricked in Eri's eyes as she fiddled with the hem of her skirt and frowned down at the floor. "Sorry, Mommy."

Cross nearly recoiled at the softly spoken words. Given Allen's current condition, there was only one explanation for why the little girl would call her that, and it was mind blowing to discover that this wasn't her first pregnancy.

While Cross just stared stupidly at her, Allen gestured for Erika to come closer. As the little girl buried her face in her mother's pant leg, Allen pet her hair, gently soothing her tears away. "Just don't do it again, sweetheart."

Prying her daughter off her leg, Allen turned Erika around to face Cross. "Eri, this is Cross. He's a general like your daddy."

Eri curtsied. "Nice to meet you, sir."

While Cross remained stunned beyond words, this time by a little girl being far too mature for her age, Allen laughed at the girl's politeness. "No, no, Eri. You've got to call him 'Grandfather'."

The glare Cross shot Allen only made her laugh. But before he could say anything, Eri clapped her hands together and jumped up and down, her silver eyes lighting up with excitement. She ran over to Cross and hugged his leg tightly. He glared down at her, but the way she smiled up at him killed all of his dislike for the situation. She was far too precious for him to be angry with her. "Did you bring me a present like Grampa Teidoll does?"

Cross picked her up and brushed her beautiful navy hair out of her eyes, marveling at the fact that the tiny child was speaking in complete sentences. "Sorry, dear. Blame your mother. She didn't tell me that you were here."

Allen scowled at being referred to by that word, but she was too scared of what Cross would do in response to argue with him. She took her daughter from the general and placed her on her own two feet. "Ok, Eri. You can go get lunch now."

The pair watched the girl toddle off before turning to each other and they conversation they both knew they needed to have. Cross broke the silence first. "So what's wrong with her? She can't be more than two years old. A child that young shouldn't be talking like that yet."

Allen bristled at the comment and scowled dangerously at him. "She's three. And nothing's wrong with her. She's just smart for her age."

She suddenly sighed heavily, all her aggression leaving her body. "Komui thinks that her Innocence is making her develop faster than is normal, but Hevlaska says that's a load of crap. I want to believe her, she's the expert on Innocence after all, but..."

"She's a parasite-type?" The tone of Cross' voice made Allen take a step back. She knew that the man would eventually come to love Erika, but she hadn't expected it to happen that fast.

Allen nodded, placing a hand on her belly. "So is this one."

Cross hissed lowly and shook his head. "Why did you have to choose one of Teidoll's brats to mate with? Now I have to share grandkids with that sentimental old fool."

.x.x.

Master Cross stayed for nearly a month. It was weird having him around like that, but I got used to it and was actually sad to see him go. He was working hard at being a good grandfather to Erika, but eventually his patience with the Order ran out and not even his "little angel" could keep him around any longer. I wanted to be mad at him for abandoning her like that, but the only thing I felt was jealousy; he had tried a lot harder with Eri than he ever had with me.

But I had other things to be concerned with. The final months of my pregnancy had passed much more quickly than I thought they would, and I still had way too much to do to prepare for the arrival of my second child. It was difficult balancing all of that with taking care of my rambunctious daughter, and on top of it all, the head nurse had only gotten more particular about my daily exams as my due date drew closer.

That Friday started like usual. Erika climbed on our bed and demanded to be fed, which was followed by the incredibly difficult task of getting my full term pregnant body dressed in a time frame that was quick enough for her. After breakfast came my usual exam with the matron. She tried to lecture me like she always did, but I escaped, arriving at the dining hall just in time to join my friends and family for lunch.

However, it was only a few minutes after I sat down that my water broke.

The sudden and unexpected soaking of my pants confused me, but only for a second, as it was immediately followed by an incredibly painful contraction. While I was relieved that it wasn't like last time, and my baby's head hadn't crowned with my first contraction, it still hurt like hell to have it forced into my birth canal like that. My labor may not have been progressing as quickly as it had with Erika, but it was definitely moving fast.

Quickly returning to my senses, I made sure to mask the pain that I felt. Not only did I not want to cause a scene in the middle of the crowded dining hall, I did not want to risk scaring Erika. Forming a plan and acting swiftly, I turned to the nearest responsible person. "Hey Lena? Can you keep an eye on Eri for a bit?"

Ignoring her confused questioning, I pushed myself up off the bench. The change in position made the baby shift lower inside me, her head pushing even more painfully against my opening, and it was hard not to visibly react to the unexpected pain.

As I anticipated, the second I was on my feet, Kanda was beside me, helping me to keep my balance. His expression asked what was happening, but his mouth stayed shut when he saw that I was in pain; he'd gotten a whole lot better at reading me over the last few years. I latched onto him for support as my next contraction started, fighting against the urge to push and managing to convey to him with just a nod towards the doors that I wanted him to help me out of the cafeteria.

Alone in the hallway, the contraction ended and Kanda stared sternly at me. "The baby's coming."

I nodded in response to the statement, whimpering in pain as another contraction started. Unable to hold back any longer, I gave in to the urge to push, crying out in relief as the baby's head finally crowned completely.

Yuu was swearing under his breath the whole time, and when the contraction ended, he fixed me with a scowl that would have been scary had I not been in such agony. I didn't catch what he said next, as the pain suddenly flared up again and it was all I could do to remember to breathe. I bore down, completely relying on instinct as I tried to deliver my baby. I knew it was useless; the baby was stuck how she was, held in place by my clothing. But she wanted out of me, so I was unable to do anything other than push and try to put an end to the horrible pain my body was in.

Then, as the pain reached its peak, with my opening stretched unbearably wide around my daughter's shoulders, my overheated skin was suddenly exposed to the air. Before I could process that my pants had been pulled down, the baby slipped the rest of the way out of me. I nearly collapsed, sobbing in relief and joy at realizing that the birth was over.

I was snapped from my emotional outburst when I felt a strong hand take hold of my wrist. I let Kanda move my hands from his shoulders, but instead of dropping them at my sides, he positioned them in front of my chest. And it wasn't until he was putting the baby in my arms that I realized that not only had he been beside me the whole time, he had been paying attention to what I was going through. It was Yuu who had removed my pants, and judging from the residue on his hands, he had caught our child when she came out of me.

He kissed my forehead gently as he moved my tired arms so that I was actually supporting the newborn. And it was then that I realized that he was laughing at me. I tried to glare at him, but I clearly didn't get the point across, as it only made him laugh louder. "Baka Moyashi. You couldn't wait, could you? You had to give birth in the middle of the hallway."

Before I could argue with him, he picked me up bridal style and began to carry me off. "Let's get you to the infirmary."

The head nurse was surprised to see us, but that morphed into anger when she saw that I had already delivered the baby. "What happened to coming to the infirmary the second you felt any sort of pain?"

I scowled back at her in response, exhausted from the strain of labor and completely done with her lectures. "You examined me _half an hour_ ago. You said that nothing had changed and I was still _days_ if not _weeks_ away from going into labor."

She tried to argue back but quickly realized that it was futile. Instead, she focused on her job, and just a few minutes later, I was resting comfortably in an infirmary bed and holding a cleaned and blanketed baby in my arms. Like me and her sister, Addie had gorgeous silver eyes, and I was both dreading and looking forward to the day when she grew into them.

I didn't get to look at her any closer than that though, as that was when Lavi arrived. He had been sent to check on me by Lenalee, who had grown worried when we hadn't come back. The redhead squealed in excitement and fawned over Addie, making her cry from how loud he was being.

Yuu took our daughter from me, easily soothing her back to a state of quiet. The room was peaceful for a moment, but then Kanda stiffened and that happy atmosphere grew chilly. "Care to explain why _our_ daughter has red hair, Moyashi?"

The question may have been directed at me, but his terrifyingly fierce glare was pointed at Lavi. It took a second to get it, and I nearly laughed out loud when I realized that Yuu was thinking I had cheated on him with Lavi; it was far too ridiculous to be plausible. But I also didn't want to upset my temperamental husband any further than he already was, so I forced down my amusement and treated the situation as gently as I could. "Relax, Yuu. It's nothing like that. That's _my_ natural hair color. I was a redhead before ... you know... what happened with Mana. I would never cheat on you."

Kanda briefly looked embarrassed, but he pushed it aside and pointedly focused all his attention on the baby in his arms. Lavi, meanwhile, went from looking confused to horrified as he realized that he'd just been accused of having an affair with me. His expression settled on a queasy half smile. "Allen may be hot now that she's a woman-"

"Hey!"

My protest was ignored. "-but she's still Allen. That'd be like incest or something. Besides, you're so terrifyingly possessive of her that I'm almost too scared to be around her in public, never mind actually being alone with her."

"Good." I didn't see the look Yuu shot Lavi, but I knew it was smug and that Lavi was right to react in terror. In the blink of an eye, the redhead had fled the room, leaving me alone with my husband and my newborn daughter.

.x.x.

Erika was thrilled to have a little sister. She loved to help her parents take care of the baby, and she played with Addie whenever she was given the chance. Addie adored her older sister, and by the time she was old enough to walk and talk, the two girls were already best friends. Together they caused a lot of chaos around the Order. They were always well behaved and respectful, especially when Allen and Kanda were around, but there was no doubt in anyone's mind that they were going to be demons when they were older.


	18. Epilogue

~Epilogue~

Unsurprisingly, it took Allen several years to fully come to terms with the fact that she was no longer a man. Not many people noticed though, because, with the help of her devoted husband, she had adjusted enough to her changes to at least pretend to be fine in public. However, she continued to voice her displeasure with her situation in private. It made her hard to live with, as Kanda couldn't help but take her complaints personally, but it didn't change the fact that they loved each other.

It wasn't until she conceived a third child that Allen finally accepted that she was female and stopped trying to fight against it.

She may have disliked being a woman, but Allen loved being a mother, even with the difficulties that came from balancing her responsibilities towards her children with her duties as an exorcist. And as such, she was incredibly excited to tell her precious little girls about their new younger sibling. However, that excitement turned into despair when Addie, with the complete honesty that only a child that young could manage, told Allen that she wanted the new baby to be a boy because she knew that her mother didn't like girls.

It was in that moment that Allen finally realized that she wasn't the only one she was hurting by stubbornly clinging to the past.

As Addie continued to talk, repeating things Allen had said about herself and clearly thinking that her mother had meant them about her, Allen could do nothing but break down, sobbing and pulling her daughter as close to her as the little girl would allow. Learning that her inability to accept that she was a woman had damaged her baby's self-esteem cut Allen to the core. And when talking to Erika revealed that she also thought that being female made her inferior in her mother's eyes, Allen nearly lost her will to live. Kanda had to work incredibly hard to calm her down that night.

It took a lot of talking, but Allen eventually got her children to understand that she hadn't been talking about them and that she loved them regardless of their gender. However, it wasn't until Yumi was born, and Erika and Addie were able to see firsthand that their mother truly wasn't disappointed over not having a son that it finally sunk in. Fortunately, they were still young, and both girls would completely forget about the incident and grow into confident women.

Allen was slower to recover, but knowing that she had almost irreparably screwed up her daughters' lives helped her finally come to terms with the fact that she was female. She deeply regretted that her prior inability to do so had hurt her daughters, but neither her optimistic personality nor her husband would let her dwell on that fact. And when Erika hit puberty, Allen could only be thankful that it had happened, as she knew that if she hadn't been pushed into accepting that she was female, she never would have been able to handle explaining menstruation to her daughter.

Finally accepting her situation and having three beautiful daughters, Allen was incredibly content with her life the way it was, and so she did her very best to convince her husband that she wasn't going to bear any more children. Kanda however, would not let go of his desire to see his wife pregnant again, and Allen ended up being the one convinced to try for a son. But when the ultrasound revealed that Allen was not only carrying twins, but that they were both girls, things changed. Carrying twins was not a pleasant experience for Allen, and she made sure that Kanda was as miserable as she was until he caved and got a vasectomy like she had originally wanted.

Life at the Order went on like usual. It was a happier and brighter place now, as Allen's second pregnancy had sparked a change in policy and members were now allowed to bring their families with them to headquarters. Allen's five girls had friends their own ages to play and go to school with - when they weren't training or going on missions. Because however much Allen and Kanda may have wanted to prevent it, the girls were all accommodators, and that meant that they had to fulfill their duties as exorcists.

It had been a rocky twelve years since Allen had first learned that her life was going to change completely, but she found that she was actually happier than she ever was before then.

.x.x.

Aya and Naomi paced in front the ark gate, impatiently waiting for their mother and older sisters to return home from their latest mission; though to anyone watching, it would have looked more like the black haired three year olds were simply chasing each other around in circles.

They cried out with joy when the others finally stepped into the entry hall, but those cries quickly turned into screams of terror when they saw the condition their relatives were in. All four women were a mess, their uniforms ripped and torn and their faces smeared with blood and dirt. Allen was bleeding from a cut on her forehead, Addie clutched an arm that was clearly broken to her chest, and the other two weren't much better off. But despite their injuries, all four were grinning with the happiness that came from a successfully completed mission. Allen immediately set about soothing her youngest daughters, but before she got anywhere, their cries attracted others, and the entire family was whisked down to the infirmary.

Allen refused to let her wounds be tended to until her daughters were taken care of, supervising the nurses with a stern scowl that terrified them all. It wasn't until Kanda arrived and convinced Allen to turn off her mama bear side that she finally consented to letting herself be cleaned up and bandaged. It continued to resurface, coming out when the doctors set Addie's arm and again when they had to put stitches in Yumi's calf, but she calmed back down when Kanda reminded her that the pain they were inflicting on the girls was only temporary and would actually heal them in the long run.

But even with Allen being overprotective and the myriad of wounds the girls had received, the mood in the room remained light and joyful. It pissed Kanda off that they weren't taking their injuries seriously. "What's got you so happy? You all look half dead. That's not something to be celebrating."

Allen shrugged, never once taking her eyes off the doctor who was putting Addie's broken arm into a sling. "Maybe not. But the Earl's dead. And that's definitely worth celebrating."

Kanda could only blink stupidly at his wife's words. "The Earl's dead? ...How?"

Allen snorted and gestured wildly with her left arm, upsetting the nurse who was trying to wrap it in bandages. "Ask _them_."

Kanda turned his gaze in the direction the Moyashi was pointing, surprised to see that she was pointing at their three eldest daughters. The girls stopped their giggling and looked up at being mentioned, composing themselves into proper young ladies when faced with their father's stern gaze; they knew he loved them, but that look was one that scared them into being on their best behavior. That didn't wipe the proud smiles from their faces though.

Allen smirked at her husband's stunned expression and proceeded to tell the story. "The Earl showed up while we were fighting some akuma. I engaged him in a fight to keep his attention away from the girls, and I ended up taking a pretty hard blow. I was a little out of it, so I don't know _exactly_ what happened next, but there was a lot of screaming from the girls, and that made the Earl focus on them. I tried to get up to stop him, but by the time I did, they had pinned him down. I only delivered the final blow."

When Kanda turned his attention on his daughters, the girls all started talking at once. It was difficult to decipher what they were saying, but it pretty obvious to him that they were corroborating their mother's story. All three girls had been distressed by seeing their mother get hit, but they had reacted the way they'd been trained to by their father; instead of crying over Allen's injuries, they had jumped to her defense and beaten off the threat like proper Kanda women.

When the news got out that the Earl was dead, the Order threw a party that lasted an entire week. At Allen's insistence, Erika, Addie, and Yumi were given all of the glory, but the girls didn't like being the center of attention any more than their mother did. At fourteen, Eri was the only one of the girls who really understood what was going on, but that only made her dislike the attention more, as it made her feel like she was stealing the credit that rightfully belonged to her mother.

But what the girls hated most about the party was the same thing they hated about all parties: the way it made their father act. Kanda had his hands full trying to keep the carousing partiers away from his daughters, and more than one man was seriously injured for trying to give beer to one of the underage girls. The samurai managed to keep his overprotective side at bay most of the time, but parties, especially ones with alcohol, always brought it out.

When the partying finally ended, life returned to normal. The Earl may have been dead, but the war was far from over. There were still akuma to destroy, and the Noah certainly did not take the Earl's death lying down. But for those exorcists who had lived through the worst of the war, this new war was more like a job than a war. They were no longer soldiers, forced to fight for their lives because of their compatibility with the Innocence. They weren't free yet, but for the first time in a long time, survival was almost guaranteed, giving them the freedom to pursue other interests.

And for Allen and Kanda, that meant spending as much time as they could with their daughters. Being a family had always been their top priority, but it was so much easier now that they weren't worrying for the other's life whenever they had a mission. They had actually gotten their happily ever after.

~Fin~


End file.
